Tracin' Dreams
by mampfer
Summary: About a (female) medical student, a medical prototype, her first (or rather third) connection to Overwatch, decisions and other bits n' pieces, such as earning herself a spot in the new Overwatch organization.
1. Humble Beginnings

The page remained blank save for the title looming over the empty space.

 **On the opportunities opened by polysomatic tissue analysis, multispectral locomotion and induced regeneration in combined application**

Ten fingers poised above the keyboard, desperately waiting for a command that simply would not come.

Her look wandered to the window, where a group of trees were gently swaying, basked in sunlight.

They offered no comfort, if anything they only increased the desparation and tension within, remembering her like a metronome how time was flying by while her own progress stood still.

Continuing their course, her eyes found a row of framed certificates, the small letters and pale pictures in stark contrast with the black wood of the frames.

All of them were granted to a particular Elani Mirscin and seemed to confirm that person's educational achievements in the fields of biology, biochemistry and medicine, an expertise which the very same woman had not been able to find during the last hour in front of the screen.

Elani's face turned grim as the mountains of effort and countless nights spent studying that had earned her those paper pieces surfaced in her memory. More time spent, at least it had given her the tools to reach her goal. The same went for the textbooks that had replaced the more mundane novels of her childhood in the bookshelf.

The white kept on taunting.

At last Elani arrived at a photo, leaning against the wall, small and unremarkable, the background a dull light-brown sandstone house front, the person in the middle somehow out of focus and blurry, despite the continuous improvements in smartphone camera technology.

And yet it filled her with a tremendous new strength.

The picture was taken a couple of months ago, in the middle of a Talon attack.

A stone's throw from her university, the terrorist organization had bombed a street, filled with traffic at the moment, shortly after taking hostages and barricading themselves in a nearby building, the car wrecks effectively slowing any ambulance and police advances and making them sitting ducks for the terrorists in elevated positions.

It was then, when the whole body of students and professors cowered behind closed doors, that Elani's professor of medicine held a rousing speech commemorating the Overwatch ideals and decided to go into the warzone beyond their doorstep and deliver first aid.

Remembering that day always evoked a terrible sense of dread that tightened her throat and threatened to freeze her entire body in place, the same as when Elani made a weighty decision.

Yet it was wiped away easily by a feeling of purpose and accomplishment as she, among four other students, abandoned their own instinct of self-preservation and scurried through the maze of steel, assisting those in need of medical attention, mostly with potent medication and devices that had not yet reached the market.

Among those a contraption developed by herself, portable and cappable of scanning any part of the body in matter of seconds and projecting three-dimensional high-resolution models of the tissue, perfect to save lives when time was of the essence.

Not a single life was lost that day.

Largely owed to the person on the blurry photo.

Elani moved out of the swivel chair, away from the mocking non-text and picked the image up from her nightstand. All her motivation ever since, condensed.

Tracer, the former Overwatch member, dashing away from the scene after taking out every single Talon unit singlehandedly and yet somehow managing do smile brightly back at her.

It also elicited a small, unidentifiable, but not at all unpleasant tug in Elani's guts.

On that day she found the purpose of her life.

Maybe Elani didn't have Tracer's incredible abilities, but that wouldn't stop her from being a hero in her own way.

Reinvigorated, she approached her laptop, filled with grim determination to write the paper that would give public attention to the fruit of the strenuous last few months and, with some luck, grant her the funding she needed to really make a difference.

At last the words came to Elani, gushing forth faster than she could type. This was her purpose, the essence of her being, the true product of her character, exactly how her life was supposed to be. Alleviation of the pains that came with life.

Then the phone rang, and Elani let out a howl of anger.

The current sentence stopped dead in its tracks, appearing ugly and jagged, like an open wound to her.

After her attempts to mentally crush the slim silvery plastic piece were to no avail, she pressed the handpiece to the side of her face and forced a _"Yes_ please? _"_ trough her teeth.

The young man's voice on the other end was so bright and cheerful it made her sick.

 _"Ah, a jolly good day to you! I am Mr. Winfried, representing the Not Over My Watch corporation._

 _And you are Miss Elani Mirscin, if my information is correct?"_

Elani contemplated terminating the call at this exact moment by use of blunt force, but resorted to answering with a voice dripping with contempt.

 _"A particularly busy Miss Elani Mirscin. I'm not buying anything, especially not now."_

The voice chattered back, so completely unabashed that only squeezing the plastic and pretending it was the caller's throat gave her the nerve to continue.

 _"My pardons, but this won't take more than a minute. And I'm convinced it will be in your interest, too."_

After a clicking sound, static noise flooded the connection and Elani inspected her phone, eyebrow raised, thanking whatever stopped the petulant voice and at the same time hoping she had not broken the phone.

The LED's flashed erratically and lines of code scurried along the screen until the display showed a symbol she was sure had never appeared before, some circle containing an inverted V, a stylized padlock in the background.

Elani immediately moved the speaker back to her ear when a sound emerged, ire more and more replaced with curiosity.

The voice had changed, now far deeper and somehow sounding not quite human.

 _"Sorry about the extra security precautions, but you can never be careful enough these days."_

Seconds passed. Elani absently seated herself on a storage box, unsure what to say and admittedly intrigued.

 _"A friend of mine has witnessed your actions on the 13th of March, and I myself have followed the progress of your prototype with interest._

 _Right now, you and your gear may fulfil a very important task."_

At last Elani found her voice.

 _"Only four people know of my prototype, and none of them are the type who let confidential information slip easily._

 _So who the hell are you?"_

A strange guttural sound that might have passed as a chuckle returned.

 _"Let's just say that Winfried and Not Over My Watch only missed by one and two syllables respectively. I'm sure you can figure out the rest yourself, you are a smart woman after all._

 _Anyway, you are in a position to save lives if you act quickly, albeit not without personal risk."_

If not for that crucial information, she would've raised her voice again.

 _"Should chose to accept this mission, move to the following location."_

Elani scrabbled for pen and paper as the voice continued.

As soon as the last number was written in ink, it added reassuringly _"The world always is in need of heroes."_ and then left her staring at the lines in an eerie silence.

The largest part of her brain rejected the thought that she had just received a call from Overwatch.

The organisation's role in the Omnic Crysis, over thirty years ago, was well-known. They saved the world we valued, or at the very least many, many lives.

As was its disbandment in the recent past, after which all Overwatch activities were declared illegal, but that never stopped her from idolizing their actions.

Sure, there were rumors about the organization continuing its work in secrecy, but Elani had always seen such hearsay as a wishful thinking she shared, despite the scientist within her telling her only to believe what could be proven.

Then again, people don't tend to leave their past behind easily, Tracer was the living proof of that.

A small part of her brain, filled with giddy excitement, suddenly deemed the ongoing existance of Overwatch not too unlikely. You can't kill a dream with a law, after all. Reason can't contain emotions.

Pushing away that thought, Elani considered on.

Even if Overwatch still extisted, why on earth would they call out to her for help?

The 13th of March.

Her eyes shot back to the blurry photo with the date long past.

 _"I am no hero."_ , her own voice broke the silence, and she wished deeply it would not be a true statement. She was only a woman, maybe good enough to have a tiny effect on the life of others if the situation was just right.

Half a mind to shred the address note and continue writing on a text which now seemed considerably more dull, a new thought popped up in Elani's head.

A line from the professor's speech, now as impactful as it was in March.

Every day, we get to choose in what kind of world we want to live in, voting with our actions.

The quote lingered in her mind, wrestling with her own words, but ultimately coming out on top.

Again Elani's voice sounded, this time strong with a newfound surge of resolve that twisted her lips into a thin smile.

 _"But I may yet become one._ "

Mindful of the mentioned risk, Elani configured her laptop to send a copy of her prototype's blueprints to a colleague a week from now, no matter what might happen to her, this technical marvel would not be withheld from the world at any cost.

After preparing and collecting various bits and pieces of equipment, mixed with thoughts along the lines of _"What the hell am I doing?"_ , Elani gave herself a final inspection in the hallway mirror.

Curly bright-brown hair tamed into a ponytail?

Check.

Ready to do something completely irrational?

Check.

Analytic, locomotive and regenerative prototype charged, safely packaged and locked in a handy storage box?

Check.

Desinfectant, gauze, blood bottles and surgical equipment from her slightly overstocked medicine cabinet spread across her backpack and bulging her dark-brown jacket?

Check.

Elani suspected that medical supplies would be available on-site, but she certainly would not want to have her first mission ruined by a lack of foretought.

Or, more importantly, see someone die under her hands because she could not be bothered to haul a little extra weight.

"Good to see reason has not left you entirely.", she told her mirror image.

Out of the blue she burst out laughing, the thought of her standing shoulder to shoulder among the former Overwatch members and fighting evil simply was too absurd.

* * *

 **That's the first chapter for ya :P**

 **If the story appeared to be inconsistent with itself or commonly acknowledged Overwatch lore at any point,**

 **if you have any questions, suggestions or other critizism to offer,**

 **please don't hesitate to contact me or write reviews. Every bit helps!**

 **My pardons for not being more productive, despite all my efforts English still is a foreign language to me and the quality would suffer from a faster, more careless writing approach.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed what you've read so far , and have fun at whatever you're doing next :)**

 **Yours sincerely, mampfer**

 **P.S.: Please note that I will not update on a per-chapter-basis but rather add a couple hundred words to the latest chapter, every day if possible.**

 **You can always tell if a chapter is finished by the bold annotations on its end.**


	2. (Re)Connaissance

The written address led Elani to a scyscraper, merely a 10-minute-walk away from her flat, and while hurrying over the pavement, she certainly valued the recent decision to use more lightweight materials in her prototype"s structure. The previous bulkiness was an issue that March had shown her clearly.

The foyer was empty safe for a peculiar fellow with a flashy red poncho, dozing under a cowboy hat in a reclined chair, his face concealed by shadows, the filled ash tray giving the entry hall a tangy aroma.

Elani paid him no more attention, than necessary, she felt her heartrate increase with every step towards her goal, sweating hands made the storage crate's handle slippery.

After the well-known pang of anxiety in the accelerating elevator passed, she tried deep, slow breaths in a desperate attempt to display a confident composure. A failed one, as her reflections in the stainless steel inlays surrounding her showed.

All too soon the metal box decelerated again, causing a new wave of panic and her to curse the new high-speed lifts.

The shining steel doors released her into the middle of a hallway covered with dark blue carpet, dozens of unremarkable wooden doors placed in regular intervals in the walls.

Elani followed the numbers until she reached 317, right at what she judged to be the northern end of the hallway, a tall window making her uncomfortably aware of how far above ground level she was, yet at the same time she really would've welcomed a cool draft in the stuffy air.

The numeric keypad accepted her code without complaint.

This was it.

Again Elani attempted to steel herself and pushed the door open, its weight and the doorframe's thickness clearly showing that this door did not need any more steeling.

A turned-off flatscreen came into sight, attached to a pastel orange wall, surrounded by blocky, brushed metal lockers, each with a dark hand-sized glossy spot on its front.

Slowly the massive door crept open.

A table, occupying half of the elongated room.

A bench, covered by two single-piece black cushions and matching the table in length exactly,

Detecting not a single person, Elani noticed that she had been holding her breath and let the air stream out, relaxing immediately.

After stepping into the room, the door closed on itself, revealing a more ordinary cabinet and a small lavatory.

Slightly disappointed about her tensing for no reason, Elani unloaded her gear onto the bench and gave her surroundings a closer inspection, this was supposed to be an urgent task after all.

Even more disappointing was the possibility it had been so urgent that she was too late and all her preparations were useless, the chance to save and improve lost.

However, no note or hint, be it physical or digital, was in evidence, the flatscreen had no apparent buttons and all the lockers were empty, with the possible exception of one that refused to open.

In fact the whole interior appeared pristine, down to the packaged crackers, dried fruits and bottled water in cabinet, not a single speck of dust anywhere.

A subtle stench of fresh paint and leather hovered in the air that quickly made Elani nauseous and convinced her, against her own dread, to pay the presently closed frosted-glass window on the far end of the room a visit. She told herself the height wouldn't concern her as much as long as she kept her view level.

The first surprise came when, at a slight tug, a line appeared in the previously flush wall and the window turned out to be door leading to a balcony.

The second surprise hit Elani like a wall as she saw the person that lazily leaned over the handrail. A person not entirely unknown, but far less blurry.

Suddenly moving and breathing at the same time became very complicated.

One of the most well-known former Overwatch members, commonly called Tracer, turned towards Elani, made aware of her presence by the noise of the opening door or possibly by a choking sound emerging from Elani's throat.

Tracer's smile was as heartwarming now as on the photo, perhaps even brighter to Elani, and stirred the old feeling of pride and purpose, far better than the picture ever managed to do. Something obscure threw itself into the mix of emotions, something powerful.

The brown flight jacket and orange jumpsuit, Tracer's ever-present trademark, were on her person as well, the harness however was replaced by a smaller, retangular piece on her hip, glowing equally bluely.

Words floated through the air, recognized by Elani's overloaded brain with a slight delay.

 _"Well, hello there love! You must be our posh new medical specialist!"_

Elani managed to utter a croaking _"Yes?"_ after a few failed wordless attempts while stumbling backwards slowly.

 _"C'mon, don't play coy on me. Just have a gander at this marvellous sight!"_

Following these words, Tracer dragged her onto the balcony, Elani's joints locking up at the touch, and motioned across the landscape.

The sunset rays turned the glass facades of the adjacent skyscrapers into solid gold, basked the lower buildings in a warm glow and forged the streams of traffic into aureate-glistening rivulets.

It was indeed a marvellous sight, until Elani's view slowly moved lower, noticed the orange gleam on green leaves and finally the balcony's floor.

Which happened to be a single slab of glass, so clear it almost was invisible, displaying an unperturbed drop downwards, she could almost feel the air whooshing past her ears.

Her heartrate seemed to double yet again as pure instinct made her hands reach for the next best solid object.

And so it occured that Elani suddenly found herself face-to-face with Tracer, arms firmly wrapped around the dense muscles of her lithe frame.

Not disturbed whatsoever, Tracer giggled and noted " _Shouldn't you buy me a drink first?"_ , puckering her lips mockingly.

The second surge of adrenaline in her blood made Elani take in the sight with a fidelity far beyond the resolution of any picture and kicking off a chain reaction.

She noticed how the golden sunlight was caught in her hair, slowly swaying in the wind.

The mesmerizing glint of her goggles, currently propped up on her forehead.

The warmth radiating off her smooth skin.

A faint spicy scent in the air, remisiscing of cool conifer forests and resin.

And the knowledge of how many people this woman had saved, how many more she inspired.

Gears started to move.

A well-known tug made itself noticeable in Elani's guts, soaring high within a split-second, slicing through every single barrier of reason in her mind with absolute ease, grasping the controls firmly and dictating a single, clear intention.

As their lips met, Elani's mind, leagues away from reason, registered her counterpart's back relaxing, a tingling sensation on her own shoulder blade, before melting into bliss.

Moments later, Tracer's face reappeared, unfamiliar concerned, forehead wrinkles showing through her goggles' tinted glass, a feeling Elani's brain could not understand in the afterglow.

Then Tracer squirmed out of the tight embrace, and the more rational parts of Elani caught up with what just happened.

Suddenly dropping through the balcony seemed considerably more pleasant.

 _"Wow, I didn't expect to be so tantalizing with a more subtle chronal accelerator."_

Seconds passed.

 _"You a'right? Yer head more and more looks like a tomato."_ , Tracer continued in an undertone of amusement, her exuberance restored.

Elani floundered back into the room and propped herself against the table, breathing heavily.

The other brunette followed.

 _"Let's try this again, shall we? I am Lena Oxton, more commonly known as Tracer._

 _Pleased to meet ya."_

Elani stared at the extended hand before grasping it, the touch sending tingling waves across her forearm.

 _"Elani Mirscin."_ , her own hollow voice came out.

 _"Sorry about, erm, the thing, is, vertigo, sun, you..."_

Her incorehent speech was put to a halt by Lena.

 _"Ah, nevermind."_

 _"They say you always gotta try new things"_ , she added, accompanied with a wink that brought a new flush of red to one of them.

 _"So, what am I to do in this mission?"_ , Elani digressed, eager to leave this topic behind even though most of her mind wanted the opposite.

Tracer's countenance turned more serious.

 _"We've intercepted Talon communication that suggests a major hostage-taking within the next two hours, somewhere in this area._

 _Problem being that thirteen large public events take place this evening, and any one them might be targeted._

 _Contacting law enforcement or medical centers could easily alarm them and convince them to strike at a completely different location or show extra brutallity. It has happened before, I ain't keen on seeing it again._

 _"And you need me and my brainchild to offer medical support"_ , Elani guessed, surprised herself how level her voice became when it came to her profession.

 _"I'm no soldier, though."_

And no hero like you, she added in her mind.

 _"Aye. That's why you got me, the gobsmaking Tracer!"_ , she said while letting the googles snap back in their proper place, straightening her posture and placing one hand on her hip.

 _"And maybe one or two co-helpers, I grant."_

After slouching herself on the bench, Tracer continued.

 _"I have no problem dealing with the common Talon underlings as long as I can catch them off guard in small numbers._

 _And Winston appeared to be astounded by your prototype, so naturally I'm confident in your abilities as well."_

Suddenly the blue-glowing retangle attached to Lena's hip sparked and smoked, leading her to yelp and rush to the single locker that had remained closed, unlocking it with a simple touch and extracting a more familiar-looking contraption.

After attaching it to her chest, Tracer was visibly relieved and noticed Elani's puzzlement.

 _"Chronal disassociation really is a nasty condition."_

 _"Pardon?"_ , the medical student inquired, not satisfied with the explanation of an illness that had escaped her so far.

 _"An experiment in my past went a little awry, without this device"_ ,she jutted her chest forward, _"I would be scattered across the ages in a matter of minutes. It happened to me once, and it's an experience I don't want to relive."_

She inspected the rectangular piece, which still appeared to be smoldering and filled the flat with the smell of burned plastic.

 _"Winston constructed this in an attempt to create a more convenient variant. It'll keep me in one place, but at the loss of control over my abilities. Only really useful for leasure time activities, and those are scarce."_

Elani nodded. Imagining the hero casually sipping a drink in a café certainly was strange.

The flatscreen made itself noticeable with a beeping sound, followed by a chesty voice, but remained blank otherwise after the "No Signal" annotation left the screen.

 _"Hello? Lena?"_

A tapping noise ensued.

 _"The video channel seems to be defective. Anyway, time is of the essence."_

 _"Oi Winston! Pleased to hear ya!"_

 _"The feeling's mutual. Is Miss Mirscin with you?"_

 _"Aye! Elani and I are already cheek by jowel."_ , Tracer grinned at Elani.

The person in question counted herself fortunate that the individual on the other end could not see her face flushing.

 _"Okay, I'll save the biosignature picked up by the doorframe scanner."_

More tapping.

 _"Glad to have you on board. You'll be sorely needed, I have deciphered the exact location._

 _Talon forces will occupy Opera Wicardenne, currently filled with about a thousand visitors, in fifty minutes. To make matters worse, their numbers have doubled from my last estimate, and most of them are already in position, hidden among the civilians."_

 _"Crackin'."_ , Tracer murmured.

 _"I've been able to find four more allies, but the lion's share will be on you, Lena._

 _And you, Elani._

 _Your transport should be ready in a minute._

 _Good luck."_

With that the voice cut out and left a slightly disgruntled Tracer and a pale-faced Elani in silence.

 _"Well, you wouldn't want to save a kitten from a tree in your first Overwatch mission, would ya love?"_

 _"I think I might pass out any second."_ replied Elani as she staggered towards her equipment.

Once all was stored and stowed away, she took a deep breath, unable to believe what she was about to say, ignoring the feelings that wanted to separate her from the towering responsibility.

 _"Let's go then, shall we?"_ , her shaky voice sounded.

At least the palpable appreciation in Lena's eyes gave her enough strength to lift her gear and lurch through the door.

* * *

 **Second chapter done! Really picking up the pace now.**

 **Sorry if Tracer's parts sound a little artificial, but I can only remember so many British expressions.**

 **And my sympathy if the little smooching scene was not to your taste. Don't care if it makes me look like a pervert, but this was the thought that started the entire story, so I felt it would only be fair to include it.**

 **And thanks to all the readers, I wouldn't find the motivation to write stories if no one read them :)**

 **Yours sincerely, mampfer**


	3. Field Test

Elani let her feet carry her forward, her paces steady and mechanical, conscience too busy pondering just what the hell kept her going to notice Tracer staying behind for a few seconds before appearing next to her out of thin air with a soft swooshing sound that Elani currently did not care to comprehend.

Sure, she wanted to help others, but placing her own life while doing so seemed somewhat unreasonable.

 _"Can't imagine how you must feel, gettin' handed the heavy stuff on your first day."_

Elani simply grunted, numb to the elevator's movements, her face a sour mask.

 _"I admit I'd rather be somewhere far, far away."_

 _"Yet you keep going! That's very valiant, to say the least."_

 _"I'm just a fool, chasin' dreams."_ , Elani sighed.

Tracer's ever-jaunty pitch did little to brighten her mood.

 _"Aren't we all, love? Trying to make the world a little better, one day at a time?"_

*pling*, the doors slid open and Elani stopped dead in her tracks halfway through after Tracer's next remark.

 _"By our actions we get to choose the kind of world we want to live in."_

 _"Who told you that?"_ , Elani inquired, a little baffled.

 _"Winston remarked it a few times. Come on, we gotta hurry!"_ , Tracer urged on.

In the foyer, the man with the red poncho slowly pushed the brim of his hat upwards and watched the two women leave before bestirring himself.

 _"So, how exactly do we get to that opera?"_ , Elani wheezed while they raced through a park.

Tracer, appearing more and more giddy with excitement gave no response but clearly steered towards the door of a walled-in area.

Once opened, Tracer took in the sight, arms akimbo and a massive grin on her face.

 _"We'll be flying!"_

Elani closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, fear working against her like a headwind.

 _"This really is one of those days."_

Entering the tiltrotor aircraft was considerably easier than commiting to what still appeared a suicide mission to her though, and as the twin engines hummed surprisingly silently inside the cabin and the lift-off escaped her senses entirely, Elani came to the conclusion that she might actually enjoy her first flight a tiny bit, no matter how hard and practical the seating accomodations were or how faint scents of machine oil and groans of metal floated through the confined space.

 _"You a'right back there? Haven't seemed too fond of heights earlier."_ , came Tracer's voice through the opened cockpit door into the crew compartment, the two opposing rows of seats empty save for one.

 _"Could be worse."_ , Elani replied, noticing only a tiny bit of quavering in her voice.

 _"I've never seen this type of aircraft before in person, though, much less been in one. Didn't know you could fly this, as well as save the day."_

 _"That makes two of us! It's a V-32 Zephyr, successor of the V-22 Osprey. I've always wanted to fly one!"_

Tracer giggled at Elani's groan, and added _"Try to not to throw up anywhere, it's only borrowed."_

After a few minutes her heartbeat had approached more normal levels and she slowly made her way forward over the gently-swaying floor.

There had been no windows in the back, and she was grateful to be able to approach the view outside at her own pace.

Looking over Tracer's shoulder, she could glimpse a huge stretch of water, running into the distance, confined by two twisting coasts on two sides, almost like a river of gigantic proportions.

Elani caught herself marvelling at the sight until a voice dragged her back into reality.

 _"Believe it or not, I can relate to aerophobia."_

The bafflement on Elani's face must've shown plainly, and Tracer chuckled.

 _"No, really! As a little lass, wild horses couldn't drag me into anything hovering more than four feet over the ground, a father turned out to be enough in the end."_

She let that sink for a moment.

 _"I'm in that Cessna, clutching to whatever I can wrap my tiny arms around and slowly dissolving into tears._

 _Then my dad forces me into the pilot's seat and sticks the controls into my fists after prying them open._

 _And just like that, everything's changed."_

 _"Why's that?"_

A glint had entered Lena's eyes.

 _"I was in control of the machine, somehow that made all the difference. A metal box high above the ground, defying the law of gravity, human ingenuity at my fingertips, every gust of wind palpable, almost like a battle against nature."_

A long sigh followed, Elani listening closely.

 _"From that day on, not even the bleedin' devil himself could've stopped me from becoming a pilot._

 _I became the best in my town, my country, in the end even the best of my family._

 _That's how I came into contact with Overwatch, how I achieved the honor of sitting in the fastest, most advanced, most marvellous airplane ever produced, every aviator's dream. They called it Slipstream."_

Her eyes had started to glisten, and now her face curdled, the regret making the heroine look like an entirely different person.

 _"And I botched it grand time."_

Only the engine's steady hum remained until the brunette continued.

 _"Some experimental part malfunctioned, and both of us were ripped out of the normal timeline._

 _If not for Winston's genius, I probably would've spent the rest of my life, or eternity,existing somewhere between the planes of existance, trapped in pale nothingness, less than a specter of a ghost."_

Lena's last words were drippping with suffering.

Elani did not remember telling her hand to cup the pilot's shoulder, but certainly did not want to draw back.

 _"Afterwards, when I felt like a part of this world again, they told me how it was all their fault, how they had stretched the borders of science a little too far._

 _Bollocks."_

Anger mixed into her voice, and she gave the intrument panel a sharp whack.

 _"I was the bloody pilot, Slipstream an extension of by will. It was entirely my responsibility, there's no other excuse."_

Again the engine's droning enveloped the two women.

Elani squeezed Lena's shoulder, who kept staring into the distance.

 _"At least it's not all bad. Where would the world be without your abilities and actions?"_

Silence.

Remembering Lena's earlier words, Elani's view wandered down to the controls and the hands grasping it firmly.

Lena noticed and offered her a thin apologetic smile.

 _"Maybe some other day."_

 _"Maybe"_ , Elani agreed.

Her mind processing and memorizing the conversation, she realized for the first time how little the world knew about the person behind callsign Tracer, and more importantly, how little thought she herself had cared to spent on that topic.

Tracer always was an idol, a symbol of hope and defiance against forces mightier than the individual.

With her new knowledge though, this view felt to her like reducing the woman to something less than she deserved.

Pushing the chain of thoughts aside for the moment, Elani focussed on the mission ahead.

 _"How exactly will we proceed at our destination?"_

 _"Thinking like a professional already, eh?"_ , a slightly amused Tracer commented and turned part of the windscreen into a transparent display with the flick of a switch.

Promptly, amber lines appeared and arranged themselves into a grid, then into a top-down view of a city.

" _This one"_ , Tracer pointed, _"is the opera."_

The building in question brightened up.

 _"We'll be landing at a distance, else the noise would raise suspicion."_

The pilot abandoned the controls for a second and Elani's heart made a drop, just like their craft, as Tracer magnified the glowing sphere into a threedimensional projection with a gesture.

 _"There are two back doors on the southwest face, each leading to a staircase and storage space._

 _They'll probably have a a guard or two stationed there for good measure, but I should be able to take them out with no problem._

 _The hostages should be held captive in a single spot, possibly on the stage, Talon troops keeping them quiet and using them as human shields."_

Tracer frowned during the last words, and Elani wondered just how often she had encountered situations like this.

 _"What about those allies Winston mentioned? Are they Overwatch members as well?"_ , Elani inquired, feeling a tingle of excitement at the prospect.

 _"Nah, right now I'm the only one Winston is able to contact. They're staunch Overwatch supporters from the old days though, and offer useful support in one way or another. He made sure of that."_

 _"Didn't know you recruit people just like that."_ , Elani said, astounded until realizing the same happened to her.

Oblivous to the irony, the aviator continued.

 _"It would've been different back then when Overwatch still officially existed, right now we have to accept all the help we can get when dealing with events of this magnitude."_

Shuddering at the thought of carnage, Elani excused herself and went back to check her prototype for a last time, taking a moment to notice a scrap of red fabric sticking out from under a crate and wondering what might be inside it before undoing the clasps of her own storage box.

Carefully she removed the bright-white device from its formfitting protective padding.

The idea had been with her for years, the first crude electromagnetic sensor constructed back in her highschool days.

Somehow this very first sensor had survived the countless developement stages and improvements conducted by herself, friends and colleagues that resulted eventually in this ingenious contraption, her own dedication bordering on obsession, according to some of them. They had not been on that street in March, though, they couldn't understand how a slightly more adjustable focal length or a larger projection angle could've saved a lot of pain and thus was well worth every sleepless night.

The latest iteration was not larger than a shoebox and had a smooth, curved plastic shell, bulbous in some spots, attached to a handle.

Elani attached the power supply, part of her still amazed how the hefty but handfilling battery managed to keep her invention running for hours of continuous use after the latest wiring and electronics update.

The fingerprint scanner confirming her identity, the software booted and projected a test pattern into the air right above the device.

Best results were achieved with a solid stand, yet the device produced a perfect copy of Elani's hand below the sensor, product of wide-range spectral and sonic imaging, by pure coincidence visible as a green light, and years of careful calibration.

By interacting with the hologram, she would be able to bisect and magnify the model wherever she wished.

And, more importantly, through the use of interference, a plethora of other physical phenomenons and algorithms, move, transform and reconnect any volume of tissue she desired without ever even touching or entering the body physically.

Elani restricted the view to veins and neuronal fibers with the simple touch of a button, watched her own pulse and nerve signals race through her twitching hand and marvelled in awe at her magnum opus, the perfect tool for surgery, the rest of the world all but faded out.

The events of March had spurred her to put more emphasis on handiness and usability in the field, now the prototype was more suited to the work ahead than ever before.

Slowly but surely the skyline of their destination distinguished itself from the surrounding land and something about the shape and colour of the skyscrapers appeared familiar.

 _"I think I've been there before."_ , Elani claimed, more to herself than anyone else.

 _"Whatcha saying love?"_

 _"Just for a day or two as a child, en route to some distant relative in Lannion."_

A long-forgotten sense emerged in Elani's mind, along with a faint smile.

 _"There was a small candy manufactory, replicating all kinds of fruits from sugar. Best sweets I've ever eaten."_

 _"Good times I bet. Let's hope you will look back onto this day with equally sweet memories."_ , Tracer smiled and began their descent.

When their aircraft had touched down on a slightly overgrown football field, rain was pouring down steadily.

 _"There go the sweet memories."_ , she noted, frowning at the beastly weather outside as the hatchway swung open.

Somewhere close to the rotors, they could constantly hear water sizzling, the engine's heat creating visible steam even in the humid air.

 _"Okay, I'll take a little detour. The price of fame, else the social networks will be flooded with pictures about me, and I won't risk alerting Talon prematurely. Simply follow the street and turn into the alley behind the opera."_

Just like that, Tracer vanished, then waved at Elani from a rooftop, shuddered in the cold rain and was prompted to move on swiftly.

She made a mental note to ask how exactly those abilities worked at the next suitable occasion, there proved to be something particularly interesting in Tracer's cells if they were cappable of such feats, enough ostensible magic to thrill any true scientist.

Darting over the shining cobble with her equipment, the medical student noticed how any hint of trepidation and anxiety was locked away behind a wall of concentration, hardened by adrenaline, thickening with every step towards her goal, even the rain seeming merely like yet another hurdle to best.

Thinking of all that had happened this day, all the fears she had conquered, made Elani feel like she was ready to face whatever laid ahead.

Seeing the few other people trudging through the downpour, not yet privy to what was happening, had an eerie feeling to it.

At the corner of the alley leading to their entry point, a gaunt man in a business suit stood under his umbrella, staring at some point in the distance and clutching a suitcase to his chest, showing Elani that the outside world had not yet taken note of the latest hostage crisis.

Further down the alley, beyond dumpsters and a pile of newspapers, turned to pulp by the cloudburst, two rainjacked-clad shapes stood in front of a blue metal door, paint flaked off in parts, a few steps below ground level. A huge backpack loomed behind the smaller of the two.

As soon as Elani came into hearing range, Tracer appeared out of nothingness, somehow barely touched by the rain and elicting a shout of surprise from the larger one.

She was dead serious as she delivered the report.

 _"Main entrance barred, the few windows barricaded, even the roof entry is guarded. And all forms of wireless communication in the area are jammed. Likely as not someone will be behind this door as well."_

A grim-looking man somewhere in his forties, disheveled black hair flattened by the rain, arrived from the other end of the alley, apparently not noticing the weather in the slightest.

 _"Pardon my lateness, I wanted to make sure this was no joke"_ , he informed with a thick French accent.

 _"Understandable. Now, how exactly can you help us?"_ , Tracer inquired as she sized up those around her.

The newly-arrived raised his voice again.

 _"I'm Pierre, you might call me a mercenary. Not too proud of my last contract, hoping to rectify things a little by offering my support."_

He produced a silenced machine pistol from a flat black bag after a circumspective look around, and Elani suddenly felt a tiny bit queasiness through the shield of concentration.

The larger of the two shapes stepped forward and emerged to be a stout woman, the glint in her eyes and voice betraying her excitement.

 _"Amelie. I don't know much aside from a little Krav Maga, but I'll help anywhere I can."_

The smaller one, a small and portly man, his face barely visible behind a great bristly strawy beard, reflective glasses and green-chequered baseball cap, simply grunted and pointed towards the backpack a head taller than him.

 _"Blood. Solution. Painkillers."_

Elani nodded in appreciation, slightly relieved. Her own supplies were hardly enough for ten wounded persons, much less a thousand if this took a dramatic turn.

Not that it would ever come to that, she told herself. Fear would only hinder her from here on, her own rationality dictated.

Pierre tensed as footsteps apppeared in her back and led her to spin around.

It was the gaunt businessman, now without umbrella, the rain making it hard to tell if the face below his reddened eyes was tear-stained.

 _"Sorry, I had to convince myself first."_ , he said with a shaky grin.

 _"I'm Judsen. A pistol marksman. And I can pick that lock."_

To prove the point, he opened his suitcase, which contained a handgun, a bundle of zip-ties and various tools.

All eyes moved back to Tracer, who stood in their middle, head held high.

 _"Well then. Pierre and Amelie, you'll help me with any Talon troops. Follow my directions precicely, we can't allow to alert anyone before the right time has come. And Pierre, don't shoot unless you absolutely must, we've come here to help, not to kill."_

Judsen had started to work on the blue door's lock, face turned hard in concentration.

 _"Oi broombeard, do you have any medical education?"_

The short man shook his head.

 _"Blasted. Then you'll help my partner, she's a physician. Do as she tells you. And Judsen, you make sure nothing happens to them."_

 _"Duly noted."_ , the man on the door commented dryly.

Something clicked.

Elani took a deep breath of the cool, brisk air and closed her eyes.

 _"It's open."_

As her eyes openes again, Tracer was crouched like a sprinter, an almost wicked grin on her face.

 _"Then step out of the way and open quickly at my command."_

She inspected our faces for a last time, giving Elani a wink, seemingly content.

 _"Cheers, darlings."_

After closing her eyes, Elani saw her chest expand as she filled her lungs to the brim.

Then her lids sprang open, voice firm.

 _"Now."_

The door was ripped open, the remaining daylight revealing two dark-gray legs.

They only moved after Tracer had already disappeared in a whisper, and a low rumbling noise emerged from the darkness.

The five remaining watched, petrified for the moment, until their vanguard stepped back into the light and beckoned.

 _"First one down, he's got a night-vision device. They're more organized than usual."_

One at a time they moved into the building, Elani last, not held back by a smear of red in the corner of her eyes.

The dim light only left vague shapes, one of them unmistakably a person on the ground, and everyone fell into their role.

Pierre collected infrared goggles and automatic rifle, Elani checked if the knocked-out guard still had a heartbeat and the businessman made sure he was well tied-up and gagged.

Tracer dis- and reappeared every few seconds.

 _"No one else around. Pierre, follow me, the others move behind at a distance."_ , she commanded.

Sticking close to walls and maneuvering around boxes and cloth-covered objects, they made steady progress.

Suddenly a blinding flash errupted all around Elani. Someone gasped, something clattered as she stumbled into someone, fearing a Talon assault, but all remained silent afterwards save for Pierre's rough voice.

 _"What happened to you? The goggles went black for a second."_

 _"The bloody lights turned on and dazzled us!"_ , Tracer informed and continued cursing.

 _"Seems like they calibrated the lights to flash and the goggles to block them out at specific intervals. They really mean business this time."_

 _"Voices."_ , the broombeard noted.

Indeed, there was a voice, hollow and muffled, Elani followed their vague direction and found a metal tube, close to the low ceiling, feeling vibrations through the metal and furrowed her brows.

 _"From this pipe, it seems."_

Still unable to see anything, she followed it, confident that Pierre would alert her of any threat, and arrived at what she judged to be a door. The corridor made a right turn, visible through a faint yellow glow flowing around yet another turn a few meters further on.

 _"Water supply facility."_ , Pierre informed in a low voice.

Elani pressed an ear to the metal, but no further sound passed through. Tracer's shape appeared next to her, a whisper followed.

 _"I say we open it, can't risk leaving a threat in our backs._

 _Amelie, Pierre, if there's more than one in there, you have to charge in and absolutely keep them from using walkie-talkies or whatever after I disarm them. Others stick to the wall. Lockpick?"_

Said and done.

When the door swung open, they were, oddly enough, greeted by a broom handle.

Whizzing through the air where her head would've been, the Overwatch member instead brought down a shape further in, wielding a wrench.

Pierre dodged the second broomhandle swing without a problem and disappeared around the corner.

Once all sounds of movement stopped, Elani dared to peek inside the room.

The only lightsource was a tiny, barred window, letting the gray outside drip in.

It offered enough light to show the mercenary pressing a pimply youth against the wall, the boy's shock showing without problem in the gloom, supported by the knife pressed to his throat.

He was wearing some sort of uniform, a hint of burgundy passing through the gray.

An equally-dressed woman was trapped under Tracer, unable to shake her off.

A third person laid close to piping and boiler, apparently unconscious, the large dark stain on and the belt wrapped around his thigh providing all the necessary incentive for Elani to step forward. A hand shot forward and grasped her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

Tracer's voice cut through the room, alarmingly stern.

 _"Stop!"_

Elani moved forward unperturbed.

 _"He be playing dead and attack you!"_ , more urging.

 _"Didn't know Talon was fond of broomhandles."_ , Pierre remarked dryly.

At last the woman grappling with Tracer found her voice, and stopped struggling.

 _"We're just staff!"_ , she exclaimed, her voice high and squeaky.

Hardly listening, Elani had already unwrapped her prototype and analyzed the unconscious' man's wound, the projection's glow dancing across concrete and metal and letting shadows flicker across the walls.

 _"Clean penetrating gunshot wound, no major blood vessels damaged, minimal bloodloss. Heartbeat stable."_ , she murmured, more to herself than anyone else, and motioned to the small man carefully peering around the doorframe.

 _"Come on broombeard, I need some disinfectant."_

The man in question glanced at Pierre and Tracer and only moved as they seemed to relax.

 _"Aren't you supposed to be the hero from the news?"_ , the youth croaked while staring at Tracer, careful not to move a single inch forward.

The mercenary pattened him down with one hand, the blade in the other one, poised to strike, and claimed _"No weapons hidden on him, the weakling would be a sorry Talon agent anyway."_

In the meantime Elani had cleaned the wound, reconnected the tissue and reformed the skin, satisfied with the improvements since her last terrorist attack.

The uniformed woman was dragged to her feet and inspected intensely by Tracer.

 _"Why did you try to attack us?"_

The boy spoke again, stopped from stepping forward by Pierre's stare.

 _"Out of nowhere these guys appear with guns and shouts, threatening the other people and urging them all onto the stage. We barely escaped._

 _How were we supposed to know you were any different?"_

 _"Fair point. Though how are we supposed to know you are not Talon terrorists in disguise? How come they didn't catch you?"_ , Tracer returned.

By now even Judsen had entered the room, visibly agitated and peeking into the direction of the light by the turn of the corridor every odd few seconds.

The adolescent continued, suprisingly stern now that the steel was bo longer in immediate vicinity of his throat.

 _"I don't know who those terrorist bastards are, but even they shouldn't be as stupid as to shoot their own. Just look at Jim, he's passed out in the corner."_

Tracer brooded over that for a second, then turned towards her allies.

 _"Okay, we'll let them leave. Amelie, Judsen, see them to the door we came through and don't let them make any noise."_

Another sudden flash of light occured in the hallway, powerful despite the ajar door, and eliciting a startled grunt from the third staff member that had remained motionless so far.

The man spent his time time glaring confusedly at Elani, his nonexistant wound and the other people around him in turn, until the two in red uniforms dragged him upwards and left for safety, accompanied by the assigned two of their own.

Elani felt as if her presence had already made a valuable difference, the ensuing sense of purpose that peeked through her focus wiping away earlier doubts.

Tracer seated herself on a particularly large pipe and chewed on her lip, looking distressed.

 _"You can't trust anyone with the bloody Talon lurking around."_

Suddenly becoming aware of her relaxed pose, she jumped to her feet again.

 _"We're moving too slow. They simply must have some sort of precaution, maybe a patrol or an interruption of the signal jamming, synchronized like the lights. Any minute now they might discover one of their guard is not reporting back."_

Sparked by their leader's urgency, the group moved swiftly through the following corridors and staircases they came upon, avoiding any paths that led to the stage, taking care of every Talon troop that crossed their way with almost comical ease, mostly due to Tracer's ability to defy the laws of time.

On the top floor, a voice wafting through the door that appeared to lead to the director's office changed their course.

 _"If the transaction is not completed in four minutes, I'll have to command my men to shoot the hostage's arms and legs. Four in the first minute, eight in the second, sixteen in the third and so on._

 _I'm sure you can figure the rest out yourself. D_ _epending on your actions, most may even survive._ _No, I don't care where or how you find the money._ _"_

Immediately Tracer motioned them back to the flight of stairs they came from.

 _"We have to save the hostages immediately."_ , she said, more a statement than a command, and Elani noticed how Tracer's hands trembled before she curled them into fists.

 _"The largest part of their force will be surrounding them._ _We would have to dispatch them quickly if we want to keep them from opening fire on anyone innocent or taking cover behind the people."_ , Elani said , to her own surprise not at all happy with the prospect of using lethal force despite the words they had just heard.

They moved down again and snuck into the main hall through an emergency exit, as far from the stage as possible and thankfully guarded from neither side.

Cowering furtively behind the countless rows of padded seats, their immediate surroundings were only illuminated by the bright lights above the stage.

Only now they laid eyes on the reason of the whole mission.

On the floorboard the opera's customers huddled, heads resting on knees, silent and unmoving like an otherworldly sort of art performance.

Among their rows walked their oppressors, armed with pistols and batons, dealing blows from time to time, their apparel indistinguishable from the people at their feet.

Surrounding the large mass of humans stood a circle of more elaborately equipped troops, wearing black protective vests and wielding what Elani judged to be assault rifles.

The six of them silenced in awe, Pierre's and Tracer's eyes darted around the scene noticeably, analyzing the situation like the professionals they were while the others were fixated on the hostages.

 _"How good of a shot are you, Pierre and Judsen?"_ , the head of the mission inquired in a whisper, a stray paper bag softly crunching as she shifted around.

 _"Good enough to hit a moving target the size of a palm at 30m."_ , Judsen returned, voice equally low.

His eyes seemed to search a face in the crowd ahead.

 _"Same."_ came from the other man with a hint of jealousy.

 _"Here's the plan. You two sneak closer and aim at the four on the right, I enter from the door left of the stage._

 _Aim for hands and wrists if you can, but take no chances._ _You have a minute."_

Without further words, the two crawled forward while the rest retreated back to the previous corridor and advanced to their own entry point.

With every step fear and tension welled in Elani, threatened to overthrow her, but she managed to suppress the feelings just like before. Emotions would not step between her and the task ahead.

Amelie, looking more than eager to throw herself into the fray once they reached the weighty doorframe, was gently pushed back by Tracer.

 _"Sorry love, this will mostly be a one-woman-job."_

Suddenly having a smooth, white, vaguely pistol-shaped object in each hand, the woman offered Elani a hollow grin, yet she knew Tracer would not get any more serious than this.

 _"Here goes nothing!",_ she said calmly as she knocked the door.

Tracer's kick caught the unsuspecting man opening the door under the chin and sent him flying back.

Three gunshots in quick succession followed, bringing down another one and wrenching a rifle from the other designated Talon's hands.

Even before it clattered on the polished wooden floor, Tracer had turned into a flurry, an apparition that seemed to appear everywhere at once, dealing kicks and blows with wicked precision,

lances of blue energy erupting from time to time from what appeared to be arbitrary angles.

The terrorists' shouts only commenced when half of them already laid sprawled on the ground, though the shots that thundered from their weapons proved to be ample arguments.

Elani's body might as well have been frozen solid as the two seconds passed that shrouded the vast open space in near-perfect silence again.

Then Tracer, kneeling next to someone thrashing around on the ground, looking straight at her, jaw clenched.

A pressing "Come!" pierced the distance.

Memories of that day in March surfaced, a tingling numbness spread through her body and a faint, high sound chimed in her ears.

She was vageluely aware of how Amelie made sure one of the Talon guards stayed incapacitated,

how the contents of brownbeards backpack softly clinked as he struggled to stay on her heels,

but not how she made her way to the man, who moved slightly less violently by now, a torrent of words streaming from his throat that made no sense to her.

The red stain growing rapidly on his shirt spoke a language she understood perfectly well, though.

Out of nowhere the white plastic appeared in Elani's hands, fingers darting through the hologram faster than the eyes could see. Broombeard spoke in a calm, soothing voice to the man as he handed her a unit of banked blood.

What stayed in her mind all the more was the stare he gave her afterwards, as if Elani was an alien creature, or possibly an angel descended from the sky.

With mechanical precision she worked her way through the mass of people, mending shattered bones and broken skin, reconnecting torn muscles and replenishing lost red. Faces changed, but the stare stayed exactly the same.

Slowly the people trickled out of the room, led down the path they had secured. From the corner of her vision she saw Judsen work his way through the crowd, inspecting people left and right before vanishing through a door previously unopened, but paid it no more attention.

As she leaned over a body laying motionlessly on the floor, someone shook Elani by the shoulder.

"What on earth are you doing?", someone unknown to her asked.

"Healing."

Her own voice sounded strange in her ears.

"A Talon? Why?"

Her lips moved by themselves and formed monotonous words.

"Because I choose to live in a world with less pain, less lives lost."

The person simply grunted and receded, leaving only the smell of tobacco and smoke as Elani turned her head and found that everyone in need of medical treatment had received it.

 _Including the Talon_ , a voice in her head whispered, followed by a feeling she could not place.

Elani eventually found her way to Tracer, who was leaning against a piece of scenery, visibly exhausted but nonetheless sporting a beaming grin.

 _"The baddies on the top floor have scarpered, it seems."_

Her smile waned a little as she wiped away a bead of sweat.

 _"As have our allies. Not that it matters much now that the hostages are safe._

 _Well, I can't blame them, Overwatch activities are illegal after all."_

Elani's lack of movement seemed to brighten Tracer's mood again, and she straightened.

 _"Back to the two of us again, eh?"_ , the brunette remarked and moved towards yet another door after wiping the sweat off her brow.

 _"The building's symmetrical in structure, but according to Winston's estimates only four Talon troops remain. Time to flush them out I say!"_ , she announced, positively joyfully, and kicked open the door.

Elani followed, stopping shortly to discard her backpack after feeling the weight of her own tiredness on her shoulders.

Her contraption and the remaining supplies in the pockets of her jacket would be sufficient for any situation that laid ahead.

Yet she could not shake a certain feeling of doubt as she hurried after Tracer.

The day was saved, the mission a complete success with no casulties on either side, yet something gnawed at her mind, various informations that culminated into the notion of something of vast importance her consciousness had yet to grasp...

The corridors they passed through were indeed a mirror image of those they passed through earlier, with the exception of the light being switched on, showing dust dancing in the air.

Furthermore, less boxes and clutter enabled the view on various other metal doors that had been hidden from sight on their entry route.

A sound on the far end of the hallway caused Tracer to freeze and motion Elani to take cover behind a painted wooden board before moving ahead.

A clunky device, roughly conical in shape, the surface brushed metal and supported by four beams jutting out like the legs of a spider, was placed on the plain floor.

Tracer cautiously moved forward, bright-white dual pistols pointing at every piece of clutter that might serve as hiding spot for a human-sized target.

Elani heard a rustling behind one of the doors close to her and shoved a conveniently-placed, heavy metal crate in front of it, just for good measure, careful not to make any loud noises, before moving back to her hiding spot.

A hinge sqeaked, slow footsteps echoed through the hallway and utter surprise showed on Tracer's face.

A shape stepped into Elani's field of view, someone in a black cloak, the fabric slowly swaying as it nonchalantly moved closer to both the metal object and Tracer.

A voice with a strange, hollow ring to it passed through the skull-like faceplate under the hood, the only white part of the outfit.

 _"Ah, Lena Oxton. So that's why this plan failed. At least I get something nice in return."_

Tracer, looking as if she was seeing a ghost, blurted out _"You again!"_ at last, her hands slowly opening and closing around the grips of her pistols, legs shifting into a more stable pose.

 _"Me again."_ , the shape confirmed and produced what seemed to be a remote control.

 _"Prepared, this time."_

Black-gloved hands pressed a button and flicked the remote control away carelessly once it had fulfilled its purpose.

The device emitted a high-pitched whirr, a blue ring starting to glow close to its top.

Then a sphere of blue lightning bolts exploded from its center, moving through Tracer, the shape, Elani, walls and ground without any apparent effect aside from letting the air crackle with electricity, blue sparks appearing from time to time.

 _"A cage of sorts. Tailored to your chronal accelerator."_ , the hooded shape explained in a calm voice, head slightly inclined to the left.

 _"Where were we? Ah, of course."_

With those words it drew two pistols, long and thick, from the depths of its cloak.

Long before their barrels pointed towards Tracer, she let loose a torrent of blue bolts.

They pierced the shape with ease, but the holes closed immediately, strange dark plumes of smoke flowing out of the exit holes and dissipating in the air after a hand's width.

Someone drummed against the door blocked by the metal crate.

As droning red flashes answered, Tracer vanished...and reappeared closely again, reeling and visibly confused.

Elani's breath caught in her throat, mind racing to devise anything that might aid her idol.

Tracer was standing right at the fringe between normal space and a wall of dim blue sparks, the latter slowly moving forward.

Red bolts whistled around her, slow but relentless, and Tracer dashed back into the unperturbed area.

This time she stayed inside the contracting bonds, seemingly spraying blueness from all possible directions at once, but the shape continued firing unimpressed, only missing by a hair's breadth each time.

The woman switched her aim to the metal contraption to no avail, her shots simply glanced off.

Elani was torn between the urge to charge in, simply to do something to aid the heroine, and the common sense which commanded her to stay the hell out of that crossfire.

At last Tracer gave the shape a whack with a shovel she picked up a split-second ago, giving her the necessary time to slam the muzzles of her own two pistols against each other and activate a sliding switch.

Blue strings of light fanned out of the combined barrels, slicing and coiling through the air and enveloping the hooded shape.

Her opponent managed to fire a last shot before disintegrating into a fine gray mist, a crimson orb that bounced off the floor, destroyed the ceiling lamp and ended up hitting her in the chest.

Sparks flew, seconds later the blue glow of her harness flickered and ultimately shut off.

Tracer froze in apparent terror, the dust that her opponent had turned into flowing away like it had a mind of its own.

The crate blocking the door toppled over, releasing two men covered in shiny black armor from head to toe that immediately pointed their automatic rifles towards the woman that was still trapped inside the electric cage and gave her chestpiece a series of whacks, cursing in the process.

They slowly moved towards her.

The white dual pistols hissed and sparked, their front ends glowing orange, the expression on their owner's face showing clearly how completely and utterly she had lost control over the situation.

A switch flicked inside Elani as she grasped the danger Tracer was in, and common sense no longer had control over her actions.

Without wasting any further thoughts, she moved out of cover, reaching for a metal bar leaning against a shelf and moved forward.

They wouldn't see her coming, she could at least take out one of them and distract the other.

Her steps silent as a whisper, adrenaline pumping through her veins and reinforcing her muscles, she moved forward.

Barely two meters from the two, their backs becoming more and more invisible under the broken lamp, the sound of a gunshot tore through the darkness, very close to her.

Its light cast away the shadows.

The three stopped.

Elani slowly turned her head, ears ringing and mind blank.

A man in a business suit.

Illuminated from behind, Judsen advanced.

Streaks of tears dimly showed on his cheeks, his teeth were pressed together firmly.

The pistol in his hands shook violently, but at this distance, the next round would not miss its target.

The gun was not pointed at any of the two Talon troops.

Judsen said something Elani failed to hear through the ringing in her ears, but she could read his lips well enough.

 _They have my daughter._

For a heartbeat she felt completely empty, then the nothingness was replaced by an almost overwhelming perception of her surroundings.

In the sensual and cognitive overdrive, the three shapes around her were reduced to anatomical models, Elani could almost see the nerve impulses racing through their spinal chords and toward their trigger fingers, their muscles contracting.

Their movements were sluggish, as if they were moving through a thick goo instead of air.

Unlike herself.

Her first strike with the heavy steel rod crashed the Talon still turned towards Tracer with force, hitting a gap between helmet and pauldron. He fell like a puppet with its strings cut.

The second one had turned to inspect the turmoil and now fired his rifle.

The intense flash removed the person from Elani's vision, but the construct of neurons and veins, of flesh and bone, remained visible to her.

The first blow broke his wirst, the second brought him to his knees and the third whipped against his temple, strong enough to incapacitate even through the padded shell of his helmet.

Only one remained. The pistol removed with a swipe, the butt of her staff jabbed into his solar plexus with maximum force, supported by a half-turn of her body, sending him to the floor.

As if someone had splashed cold water into her face, Elani crashed back into reality.

She couldn't see a thing, and a burning pain throbbed through the entirety of her arms.

She spent a minute just standing there, trying to wrap her head around what just happened, the muzzle flash burned into her retinas slowly fading and enabling her to see the woman coming closer.

The dread writ large in her face, Tracer clutched the still dormant chronal accelerator on her chest with one hand.

 _"You okay?"_ , she asked with a brittle voice.

 _"Yeah."_ Elani's tongue had problems following her mind's commands.

 _"Sure?"_

 _"Yeah."_ There was a sour taste in her mouth.

Tracer removed the chronal accelerator and gave it an utterly pleading look.

 _"It's gonna happen again."_ , she whispered, almost inaudibly, fear widening her eyes.

Then she picked up one of the rifles and walked towards the row of closed doors and along the corridor, her movements stiff and voice dull.

 _"Time to find this daughter then. You stay right here."_

Now left to her own, Elani felt absolutely exhausted after the surge of adrenaline and played with the thought of laying down on the spot until her eyes readjusted to the gloom of the broken light and found a trail of blood.

Suspecting another wounded hostage she followed it, but somehow it only led her to dead ends or in circles, seemingly reappearing out of nowhere before splitting up, yet ,for some bizarre reason her mind could not grasp, always uniting in the same spot.

The next thing Elani remembered was Tracer's face above her.

Her forehead wrinkled in confusion. She could not recall hearing the now even more distressed-looking woman coming back from saving the last hostage, or when the ground had moved up to meet her...

Tracer's words and gentle shaking removed some of the mist from her mind.

 _"Elani! What the hell happened to you? There's blood everywhere!"_

Led by a dull, distant pain in her side, Elani's hand wandered downward.

A wave of nausea washed over her as the numb fingers found the wound.

 _"Seems I'm not okay after all."_ , she observed while grimacing.

The other woman slumped down, the unfamiliar appearance of boundless helplessness on her features.

 _"This situation could not get any worse even if I tried."_

The analytical parts of Elani's brain still worked fine, in contrast to the others that seemed to be stuck in a chunky mud.

 _"The renal artery of the kidney is most likely damaged. Not good, not at all."_ She was struggling with the words by now.

 _"Bring me the prototype."_

She appeared to be in conflict between obeying and curling into a ball, but complied.

 _"Now hold it over the wound. Press the red thingie...oh God...no...other..."_

Tracer's shaking hands did not make it any easier, neither did how the room spun and her vision blurred as she reached into the hologram, displaying each pump of her heart in glowing red until the doctor eventually managed to close the damaged blood vessel.

Too weak to heal the minor issues as well, her hand fell to the floor limply, covered in cold sweat, her blood rushing in her ears in slow and feeble pulses.

Through a heavy lid she watched Tracer, saw the fear in her eyes. The lifeless chronal accelerator looked like the gaping eye socket of a skull.

She wished with all her heart she could help Tracer, but she simply lacked the knowledge, the materials and the strength, now lurking at the border of consciousness.

The professor's speech came to her mind again. A different part.

To make a choice, we first have to know the choice exists.

Tracer cowered on the floor, arms wrapped around her legs and head resting on the knees, her gaze locked at some point at the distance.

 _"I don't want to leave the world behind again."_ , she whispered, her body flickering every few seconds. She reached out for Elani's hand, clutching it firmly.

 _"It's almost like death, only without the tranquility, constantly reminded of your solitude."_

Her eyes glistened.

And Elani made a choice. An impossible one, but she was way past caring about that by now.

 _"I will not let you disappear from my world."_

She brought her torso into the vertical, vision fading to blackness save for a few dancing stars of pale color.

Her hand found a small object, blocky, the contacts on one end as familiar as the back of her own hand after the countless hours, the other end however smooth and warm.

She would've almost laughed, but a rush of vertigo caught the air in her throat.

The impossible had happened.

 _"Break it."_

Tracer, focussed at different matters, gave her a confused glance.

 _"Break my prototype."_

For a terrible moment the woman vanished, coming back whimpering and following Elani's command.

The smooth plastic cracked, revealing various bits and pieces of electronics, lenses and wiring.

Elani plucked a part out of the circuit board and issued the next command, thoughts flashing like bolts of lightning.

 _"Open your accelerator."_

Luckily Tracer's vital piece of equipment was easier to disassemble, the stray bullet had peeled away part of the metal capsule, contacts laying open where a component had been ripped out by the ricochet.

Elani replaced the part with its twin from her own contraption, the foundation of her whole prototype, responsible for analyzing tissue, developed by herself long ago and one of a kind. At least so she had thought until now.

Elani tossed the harness back to Tracer, who attached it again, wordlessly.

The blue light, flickered back to light, and Tracer blinked at the glow, then to Elani, and back again, unbelieving.

Then she pounced Elani, wrapping her arms around her and forcing the air from her lungs, a sob shaking the two woman.

Again she noticed the slightest hint of conifer, bringing back a well-known tug in her guts and pleasant memories.

 _"I don't know how to thank you.",_ Lena's voice squeaked.

A warm fuzzy feeling filled Elani.

The embrace tightened.

 _"So please don't die."_

* * *

 **Et voilà, a great bunch o' words for the third chapter!**

 **Again, I sincerely hope you liked what you've seen so far, and thanks to everyone that reads this sentence!**

 **If it were not for you, I wouldn't be able to write.**


	4. Aftermath

_Don't die._

The words echoed through the darkness.

 _Don't die._

They had a pleading tone sticking to them.

Elani felt words leaving her mouth, her body was being moved.

 _Don't die._

The words commanded.

 _Don't die._

Over and over again, until the phrase somehow turned into a bleak, gray ray of light, and she was back, standing again in front of that blue iron door, rain pouring down relentlessly.

The scene shifted, twisting and turning through corridors and along human faces, gunshots sounded in the distance.

The stream of images coiled back as space warped, reconnecting with itself like Ouroboros, the snake consuming its own tail, repeating and looping again and again, the moment of perfect clarity, three men around her, standing out from the crowd of pictures like a painting floating on top of a deep, calm lake.

New voices emerged, shouting a single word through thousand throats.

 _Cycle. Cycle. Cycle. Cycle._

With each repetition the colors in her mental landscape lost saturation, flaked off and flew away like rainbow cinders, replaced by a radiant white. A single sentence concluded.

 _Break the cycle._

Elani found herself back in a hospital bed, staring at a blue plastic flower on a window board, the sun's warm glow palpable through the drawn curtains.

All the emotions blocked and concealed during the mission now took revenge and hit her with the force of a sledgehammer, her eyes suddenly burning with tears and throat constricting.

The piercing sensations faded quickly, though, and left a sense of accomplishment in their wake unlike anything Elani had ever felt, her chest feeling as if it was filled with honey, sweet and warm and golden.

Elani flinched as a sudden, sharp noise emerged from the direction of the room's exit and once again as a voice appeared without any premonition.

 _"Oi there love! Doing fine?"_

The shock of dark-brown hair covered by a baseball cap, chronal accelerator and pilot jacket hidden by an olive raincoat and orange jumpsuit concealed beneath more modestly coloured sweatpants, one had to make use of a second glance to recognize the person underneath.

Tracer had shadows under her eyes, but their gleeful glint had returned, her smile infecting Elani with ease.

 _"I can't complain."_ She shrugged, the motion sending a small lance of pain through her side.

The other woman noticed, her lips tightening for a moment.

 _"You really frightened me as you blacked out. You're lucky the paramedics were right outside, I wouldn't be able to stand losing you after what you've done."_

She stepped closer, her face almost affectionate.

 _"Seriously. I owe you, big-time."_

Lena tossed a small plastic bag onto Elani's lap, from which she extracted what appeared to be two cherries, connected at the stem.

 _"You rembered!"_ , Elani exclaimed, unbelieving.

The woman in the raincoat leaned against the wall, complacence apparent in her voice.

 _"The very least I could do."_

The clear, dry sugar coating dissolved in Elani's mouth, giving way to the rich taste of cherry and a hint of almonds, stem turning to liquid lime and evoking memories of simpler, less dangerous days.

 _"Saving me twice, on your first day!"_ , she added after a laughter. _"Winston will wind me up to no end."_

Two of the words stirred something in Elani, and it was not the paradoxical reversed role.

 _"First day?"_ , she mumbled as she chewed on the more crystalline sugar center halfway through the sphere.

 _"Why yes! The mission was a complete success, no casulties among the civilians, only one of the terrorists died. Without you, none of this would've been possible."_

The scene of her fighting with the crude iron bar appeared again before her mental eye, this time in a different shade, and her throat went dry.

She was painfully aware of every muscle movement from the moment she struck the Talon's neck and could almost hear a quiet cracking noise.

The sense of accomplishment close to her heart withered away, the mission's result tainted in her mind, despite what reason told her.

Lena continued, oblivious to the shadow that had fallen over Elani's face.

 _"Miss Elani Mirscin, to you want to help in restoring the Overwatch organization to its former glory?",_ the Overwatch member offered her solemly, extending a hand towards her.

 _Yes._

 _I want nothing more than to accompany you._

 _But this is just another choice, and right now there's only one right answer._

Elani pressed her lips together firmly, the last remnants of the candy's bitter chocolate core passing down her throat, the taste suiting the moment perfectly.

Just as she mouthed a " _No."_ for the first time, someone knocked on the door and entered without awaiting permission.

A man, sporting shaggy black hair and beard, a sort-of cape in red with orange patterns covering his shoulders, pressing a cowboy hat to his chest with what appeared to be a metal prosthesis.

His features had a rogueish character, his voice was steady and calm as he scanned the room before facing them.

"Sorry if I intrude, but I have important matters to discuss."

Tracer's body tensed immediately and she moved between Elani and the stranger.

"Who the heck are you?", her hands moved towards her hip inconspicuously but the man noticed without the slightest problem, placed his hat on a nearby hook with a deliberately slow movement and showed his palms defensively.

"I'm surprised you haven't decrypted the Blackwatch database yet."

With a sly grin, he added "What's up Tracer, have you misplaced your favourite weapons? That M1911 in your pocket is a fine replacement, though."

Flushing and increasingly angry, she drew the predicted pistol.

 _"I'm asking again, who the hell are you?"_

Indifferent to the apparent threat, the man simply produced a cigarillo and made efforts to light it.

A nurse who must've possessed supernatural senses slammed the door open in the exact same moment and snapped _"No smoking in the hospital!"_.

Tracer barely had enough time to hide the gun behind her back.

A shade of anger passed over the man's face, but calmness persevered in the end.

 _"Your house, your rules."_ , he confirmed dryly and removed the tobacco from sight.

The nurse nodded in approval and exited.

The three of them shared a glance and picked up again from where they were interrupted.

 _"I am Jesse McCree, former Blackwatch member."_

He seemed to cherish the two women's puzzled silence before continuing, flexing his bionic limb with a degree of articulation that surprised Elani and left her wondering how exactly it was attached to his nervous system. She blamed traces of painkillers for the sudden change of focus.

 _"I watched your little hostage rescue with keen interest, and drawn the necessary conclusions."_

Thinking back, the shade of red that colored his cape was indeed somewhat reminiscent.

Tracer, unusually taciturn, gathered a few words, looking a little lost depite the weapon in her hand.

 _"And what conclusion would that be?"_

 _"Overwatch is strong enough again. I'd like to rejoin."_

* * *

Elani was back again in her flat, the area around her kidney still bandaged and twinging from time to time.

Tracer had excused herself after the odd man had stated his intentions, apearing to be both sceptical and buzzing with excitement at the same time.

She had not returned on the following day, Elani even felt somewhat relieved that the choice about joining Overwatch had been taken out of her hands.

Which made the moment where Tracer had appeared, delivered a friendly wave and handed over contact information before disappearing again all the more interesting.

After the events her personal living space seemed dismal and vapid, even unfamiliar despite the fact she had only been away for a few days.

Worldlessly she sagged into the swivel chair, switching on her laptop out of habit.

Seeing the half-finished document elicited a hollow laugh from her, but did not improve her mood in any measurable quantity.

She herself had added a death to the list that day, despite all her efforts to do the opposite.

Her hands, the very tools she had chosen to save lives, touched by the enemy she had sworn to defeat.

She had failed her purpose.

 _You killed a terrorist to save a hero_ , the voice of reason told her. Then why did she feel so miserable about it?

 _Which one should I follow, reason or emotion?_

None of the two offered the answer.

Mechanically Elani stood up again, walked towards the blurry photo of Tracer and tossed it into a drawer.

It was not needed anymore now that she had seen the real thing.

 _And felt_ , a sweet, malicious voice in her head added, reminding her of the incident on the glass balcony.

 _Surrounded by gold..._

She pushed the brimming clump of thoughts and vivid sensations aside.

A bit of scarred and knotted tissue in her side would probably remain, otherwise harmless.

She had healed and saved.

She had been shot and betrayed.

She had killed a man, and almost been killed herself.

Growing tension in her chest vented into an exclamation.

 _"Only a fool would want to lead such a life."_

 _Or a dreamer_ , yet another voice inside her noted, leading her to gritting her teeth.

Suddenly a piece of paper laid before her where Tracer had scribbled a number.

Elani frantically closed her eyes, tension within surging again, a dull pain pounding in her side with every heartbeat.

Inside her, rationality battled against feelings.

Moments passed.

Thoughts criss-crossed through her head, thoughts she could not suppress.

The trapped air streamed out through a grin and Elani looked at the paper with different eyes.

Putting all her energy into the developement of her prototype would be the most reasonable thing to do. Her latest experience would provide a great leap of advancement, just like it had in March.

Joining Overwatch almost was unresponsible, and certainly unreasonable.

She could lead her prototype to perfection. Spread it all over the world, to every hospital, to every battlefield, maybe even to every home. She would gain renown, wealth, the soothing confidence that countless lives were saved and improved through her invention, and yet something would be missing.

Something Elani had felt only a few days ago.

She could see her future splitting up into two distinct paths,now all she had to do was choose.

This was not about reason, anyway.

This was about **chasing dreams.**

* * *

 **That's all folks!**

 **My first Overwatch story arc is finished.**

 **Perhaps one of many? That's up to you!**

 **If you have enjoyed the story so far, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd take a minute to rate it:**

 **goo*gl/forms/5RFqcuw5SWtcYr453 (replace * with .)**

 **If I can't bother you with that, you may also vote what I'll cover in the next story arc:**

 **goo*gl/forms/r7S747j7GHOvXkE03** **(replace * with .)**

 **Have a good time ;)**

 **Greetings, mamper**


	5. Into the Blue

_This is all silly. Very, very silly._

 _You'll only get yourself killed._

 _You are a student, how will you oppose armed men with your knowledge?_

 _The first encounter almost ended you, every one from now on means dicing against death_.

The gloomy thoughts simply glanced off Elani as her eyes wandered over the small sailboats softly swaying beyond the quay, the sky behind her heralding rain, the way forward however basked in sunlight.

Even without this sign, even without the pure glee in Lena's voice when she had committed herself, Elani would've been confident this was the right choice.

The chance of a lifetime.

Yet she caught herself staring at the seagulls squawking oberhead.

Her mind pulled knowledge out of mental drawers, thoughts about their ecological niche, behavior patterns, natural and anthropogenic evolution - yet what lingered the longest was the unspoken question wether she would see them for the last time.

The biologist's musings were cut short when a hint of red in the corner of her eye made aware that the steps in her back belonged not to some random passerby but rather to the man that had so abruptly visited them in the hospital.

McCree tipped the brim of his hat as way of greeting, otherwise wordlessly leaving a faint trail of tobacco in the salt-spiced air.

Elani, temporarily stunned by his nonchalance, jumped off the bollard, backpack snagging on the rough, rusty metal after being hauled up from the concrete floor, and caught up to him.

He inspected her but remained silent otherwise.

Only the sound of squawks, waves and boots on wooden planks sprinkled their path down the pier until Elani found a conversational topic along the road.

 _"Fascinating how many ships still use sails these days.",_ she initiated, still a little suspicious of the alleged former Overwatch member.

He shrugged, a sudden gust of wind tearing at the red fabric around his shoulders.

 _"Some prefer the old and trusty ways. People tend to stick to what they already know and understand."_

A more taxing glance followed, and Elani felt like he was giving her a rating she would not have approved.

 _"So, why exactly are you here? What's your motivation?"_

 _"Why, I simply want to help those in need."_

Something in the way his jaw shifted made Elani suspect he was not satisfied with her answer.

McCree certainly was quite unlike Tracer, she wondered how much variation of character there had been in the old Overwatch team and what exactly had the whole lot fused together. Had it really been the common dream?

 _"Sure you're good enough? Overwatch ain't the place for wussies and office clerks._ "

Not inching back in the slightest, Elani countered.

 _"I've taken down three armed men."_

And, meekly, added _"And killed one of them."_

If McCree was surprised, he concealed it perfectly.

A motion of his arm dragged back the red cape and revealed a holstered revolver.

 _"My sixshooter has met twice the number more often than you could count."_

 _"Not on your first day, though."_ , Elani snapped back victoriously.

A crooked smirk broke through his fascade.

 _"No, they came by the dozen the first time I killed."_

She didn't know how to counter that.

Their path took a turn, by now they were passing more and more elaborate yachts.

 _"Why are we here, anyway? A horse would go well with the cowboy hat and the revolver, but I doubt it's a seahorse."_

That somehow seemed to delight McCree.

 _"Do you know Arion?"_

Elani had to dig through her memory for a while.

 _"You mean the immortal horse from Greek mythology? The one sired by Poseidon himself?"_

Her companion had stopped in front of a particularly interesting-looking ship.

Its center hull was long but thin, bow tapering into a needle-fine point.

The windshield was perfectly flush with the hull, apparently made of a single piece of translucent material and open in the back.

About halfway through the upper part of the hull broadened and eventually meeting the water in the last third of the length, giving the ship three hulls in total and its deck an almost triangular shape.

The trimaran, a rare sight on itself, impressed Elani less than its paintjob.

Above the dull gray marking the waterline, colours such as sapphire, turquoise and glacial blue dappled the hull, smoothly flowing into each other, a fine net of navy blue providing a darker contrast, all topped off by the diffuse gleam of the brushed aluminium handrail.

Again, McCree put a halt to Elani's wandering thoughts.

 _"A beaty, ain't she?"_ , he stated proudly, thumbs tucked into his belt.

Only by then she noticed the ship's name.

 _"Arion."_ , Elani mumbled as the realization struck her.

 _"Aye."_ McCree let that sink for a moment, looking rather smug in the process.

 _"Somehow ended up in the Lesser Antilles one day and took a liking to sailing there."_ , he said and moved towards the gangplank.

 _"She's not quite a sailing ship. Swift, though. I ain't too keen on flying, getting my Peacekeeper through customs is troublesome and those new composite peashooters always make my fingers itch."_

Elani could only blink as McCree waited on board, leaning onto the gangplank's rail and regarding her expectantly.

 _"Come on! We may even get there before sunset."_

 _"What? Where?"_ , came her stuttered response.

The desperado turned his face south, genuine anticipation visible in his features.

 _"To Gibraltar. To bring Overwatch back to life."_

Part of Elani was upset that she wouldn't get the chance to best her fear of flying again, but it was not exactly the largest part.

After she had passed the gangplank, taking care not to pay the gap too much attention or think about how deep the sea below her was, she found herself on bright-white wooden planks and gave McCree's earlier words a little more attention. Soon enough, her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

 _"To Gibraltar until sunset? That's at the very least 2000km, and we already have noon. Just how fast is your Arion?"_

McCree was busying himself with the instrument panel, the digital screens and mechanical devices barely letting any space left for the small door leading to the lower deck.

Even from up-close, the canopy was crystal clear.

 _"At the very least 2600km to be exact. And wickedly fast, just like her namesake."_

A number in particular piqued Elani's interest, her stomach did a flip and her voice shrinked to a whisper of disbelief.

 _"216 knots. Or 400 kilometers per hour. So this basically is a plane."_

McCree pointed towards the metal rim of the canopy and slits in the floor.

 _"At high speeds, the canopy will extend itself to shield those within from the wind."_ , he explained as if that would make everything alright again.

With a low hum that reverberated through the entire ship, the engines started and slowly pushed them away from solid ground and into the blue.

Hoping that the rest of the ride would be equally smooth, Elani turned her mind on more important subjects.

 _"Where's Lena, anyway?"_

McCree, concentrated on maneuvering around a flamboyant cruiser, nodded towards the hatch leading into the boat's belly.

Once the obstacle was cleared, he elaborated.

 _"Tracer's trying to fix those white plastic pistols she carries,"_ , a hint of contempt tinting his voice, _"they still are quirky from your last adventure."_

Without further ado she operated the handle and descended a flight of steps half her height.

In the considerably darker environment, Elani saw little more than a blue flash before she found herself in a hug her body returned instantly without awaiting approval of the mind.

 _"Hallo darling! Long time no see!"_

The ensuing chuckle and Tracer's ever-cheerful demeanor immediately infected Elani, the sudden jolt as the ship accelerated barely noticeable through her own grin.

Once more attired in brown and orange, the woman dragged her back to the sun and continued.

 _"Back on your feet and ready for the grand voyage I see!"_

The two of them stopped for a moment to watch the harbor rapidly growing smaller.

 _"How's your wound doing?"_ , Tracer poked, a little concern flickering into her voice as a lightning shot down from the dark cloud looming over the shore.

 _"Barely noticeable."_ Elani's attempt to shrug it off coolly was thwarted by the thunderclap reaching them that made her jump and elicited yet another chuckle from Tracer.

 _"A marvellous ship, isn't it?"_ , she noted while strolling over the deck.

 _"Kinda like an aircraft. Slick and fast."_

 _"I noticed."_ , Elani commented glumly.

The fact that the waves flew by ever-faster and they seemed to be higher above the water surface than a minute ago made her next words palpably anxious.

 _"It won't actually lift off, will it?"_

 _"Will it?"_ , Tracer directed at McCree, her noticeable excitement forming a stark contrast to the previous phrase.

The man's features twisted in mild amusement.

 _"You really are a bunch."_

The suspense hovered in the air for a few heartbeats.

 _"You both are right. The hydrofoils lift the hull above the water to minimize drag."_ , he explained.

Elani relaxed with a sigh, Tracer pouted.

In the following hour, Elani sat behind the dashboard where the strong wind would bother her the least and rummaged through the contents of her backpack, checking if anything had miraculously disappeared since the last inspection.

Progress was slow since her eyes darted back to Tracer every few seconds.

The other woman was at the bow, gripping the handrail, leaning into the endless gale from the front valiantly, the wind tousling her chestnut-brown hair and the sun gloriously illuminating her from the side.

Elani absent-mindedly grasped the next document, not noticing the shrewd glance McCree was giving her as he lazily leaned on the dashboard.

 _"Good to see yer serious."_

 _"Huh?"_ , she blurted out, brain rebooting after daydreaming.

The paper in her hand made certain no more pleasant thoughts lingered around, it happened to be a will and testament.

With a sour countenance, she faced the desperado.

 _"I consider myself a scientist, and thus must face the truth. I'm aware of the danger."_

McCree gave a nod of appreciation and, unlike her, flinched not in the slightest as Tracer appeared between them in a swoosh.

 _"Why are we slowing down?"_ , the newly arrived complained.

 _"The sea has roughened up too much, flying through these waves may damage the ship."_ , the current helmsman clarified.

Pouting again, her hand hovered over the doorhandle for a second before she stormed off and wandered over the deck, walking hither and thither and eventually ending up at the stern.

Leaning far over the rail, she inquired _"What's the purpose of these hatches?"_

 _"Target practise."_

 _"I beg your pardon?"_

McCree sighed, flicked a switch and moved towards the rear as well.

Elani followed close behind, intrigued.

Tracer let out a shout of delight as a small drone flew into sight, the part facing them covered in metal sheets with a steep angle, to make any stray bullet ricochet off, as Elani surmised and McCree confirmed.

"Most shooting ranges on solid ground would be too small for me anyway."

Below its main body hung a red circle, no more larger than a palm.

 _"Smashing!"_

Tracer would not stop marvelling at the identified flying object.

 _"So, at what distance can you hit the target?"_ , she managed after taking her eyes off the buzzing piece of metal.

McCree simply shrugged.

 _"Don't know, I keep losing the signal at some point."_

The deadpan delivery made the two women share a glance, and Elani tried to comprehend how that could even be humanly possible.

Then again, Overwatch members were not like common people.

 _In which category do I fall into, though?_

 _"How about a shooting contest then while we pass the rough sea?"_ , Tracer proposed, buzzing in her own way.

Judging by his face, the marksman did not approve of the notion.

 _"Firing a gun is a serious business."_ , he forced through a clenched jaw.

 _"Not something I just do for fun."_

 _"Well,"_ Tracer countered and swaggered towards Elani, putting her arm around the other woman's shoulders, sporting an impish grin.

 _"How are we supposed to know you not only talk the talk, but walk the walk as well?"_

McCree gritted his teeth, but complied in the end.

The upper end of one of the rail's vertical supports split open and let a screen unfold.

At a press of the virtual button, the drone buzzed off into the distance and a man-sized circle started to glow on the deck, right were he was standing.

A number on the display increased steadily until it reached 1500m/1640yd.

 _"I hope that's far enough for you, I get a little iffy after 2000."_ , he commented with a crooked smirk.

Even while squinting and shielding her eyes, Elani had trouble making out the drone's metal gleam, much less the red target.

 _"You may want to step back and cover your ears, girls."_ , he warned as he unholstered his revolver.

The two followed the suggestion, Elani tensing, the memory of a close-quarter gunshot slowly chiseling itself out of her mental landscape, a jagged sort of feeling dogging on its heels.

She squirmed a little as a brief stab of pain pulsed through her side.

Lena squeezed her shoulder.

McCree cocked the hammer and took aim.

Somehow Elani's perception of time became a little more detailed, she could clearly see how the recoil travelled along his wrist, how the shock was absorbed and his body turned ever-so slightly.

A second bullet was let loose after what felt like a long time to her, again she witnessed its effects in intricate detail.

Their boom rang as if her head was a bell, filling her ears with a droning noise despite the hands covering her ears.

Suddenly she felt sick, certainly not seasick.

Vaguely she was aware of someone calling her name, the words reaching her as if through countless layers of cotton.

 _"Elani? Elani? You okay?"_

Lena's concerned face appeared in front of her.

 _"Yeah. Yeah."_

There was something sour, something red.

The force of the déjà-vu threatened to take her off her feet.

 _Cycle. Cycle. Cycle._

 _Break the cycle._

 _There was that phrase again._

Elani blinked one or two dozen times, and found herself back on the ship, on her knees, Lena holding her upright. The sudden sensation of the cold air made her shiver and caused goosebumps.

McCree's revolver still pointed towards the target, though his eyebrows were raised in confusion.

The display flashed two times, each accompanied by a cheerful plinking sound.

She pushed herself on her shaky legs, still leaning on Lena.

 _"Just some bad memories."_ , her brittle voice assured.

The marksman nodded sternly and holstered his weapon.

 _"I've seen these symptoms countless times before. Don't worry, it will become less pronounced in time."_

 _"No shooting contest then."_ , Tracer concluded, not sounding particularly sad.

 _"No."_ , a voice of protest countered.

Elani felt inclined to look behind her as the other two stared into her direction.

A glint of interest awakened in McCree's stare and then the revolver was in his hand again, offered grip first.

Lena motioned to swat the arm aside but Elani intervened and gently pushed her away.

 _"If I want to join Overwatch, I can't back away from my fears easily."_ , she decided, more to herself than to anyone else, voice still unsteady.

As she grabbed the grip, McCree did not release the weapon inmediately but rather laid a heavy hand on Elani's shoulder, looking her straight in the eyes with a fierce pride.

 _"The rules are simple."_ , he said solemnly.

 _"This is a gun. It makes holes. If you don't want holes in something, don't point, much less shoot at it. We'll teach you the subtleties later."_

He loosened his grip and hurried away, returning briefly with a pair of green earmuffs he then handed over as well.

Elani lifted them off one ear as McCree tapped her for a last time.

 _"If you drop my Peacemaker into the ocean, you'll be the next thing sailing over the balustrade."_ , he promised, dead serious.

Not encouraged by much, Elani stepped into the glowing circle, her legs still wobbly, the revolver though feeling cold and solid in her hand.

Intent on using the same conditions as McCree, she held the gun in one hand, the arm kept straight.

The glowing blue pole at the barrel's end wiggled and twitched all over the place despite her best efforts, barely coming close to the tiny silver speck she suspected to be the drone.

She could feel the two other's stares drilling into her back and clenched her jaw.

Then she relaxed.

Took a good lungfull of the fresh, cool air.

And concentrated.

She vividly imagined all the muscles, tendons and nerves that were betraying her.

Manus. Antebrachium. Brachium.

Elani commanded all of them to do exactly what she wanted.

The trigger was pulled, the flash appeared, the recoil forced its way through her arm.

She loosened a second shot as soon as she dared, aiming somewhere into the same general direction.

Elani removed the earmuffs, noticed the throbbing pain in her wrist and hand.

The three waited in tense silence, only broken by the roiling sea below and the steady hum of the ship's engines.

Then a single signal sounded.

Immediately McCree shoutet _"You gotta be kidding me!"_ at the top of his lungs and Tracer burst out laughing.

After consulting the handy screen, the desperado meekly remarked _"Beginner's luck, the second one missed by a country mile."_ , which did little to calm

Tracer down.

By the time McCree had reacquired his weapon and offered it to the next woman in line, she had her hands propped on her knes and was gasping for air.

 _"No thanks, I fear that would be somewhat anticlimactic."_ , Tracer wheezed as she wiped away a tear of joy.

After the moment of focus her legs returned to their previous unsteadiness, so Elani excused herself and went belowdeck.

Not distracted by any hugs this time, she found herself in a compartment with the corner closest to the door filled by a brown leather sofa, turning 90 degrees in one spot to make use of the most space available and large enough to seat four and completed by a table.

Further inwards, a rudimentary kitchen area was secluded behind a counter, the furnishment sleek and simple, a stark contrast to the plethora of tools, blankets, bottles, boxes and a diverse range of other utensils that covered every inch of wall available on both sides, yet never sticking out more than a hand's width.

A door on the far end led further into the hull, presumably to sleeping and storage quarters.

On the counter laid one of the pistols Tracer used, the uncompromising black-white colouring and general futuristic appearance sparking Elani's curiosity.

While coming closer, she took the time to notice how a neat row of port lights on eye-level flecked the floor with isles of light and showed the waves zooming by outside, yet had been invisible in the port.

Very carefully, making sure not to touch anything that even remotely resembled a button, especially not the trigger, Elani inspected the pistol further, wondering if she ever would have some sort of weapon of her own.

It was surprisingly light and plasticky, in fact differing from McCree's revolver so much that she would've hardly believed it was a weapon.

Except she had seen it in action, Elani noticed with a shudder that made her place the device back again on the counter and seek the sofa.

 _Not quite out of the woods yet, it seems._

The cushion was soft, the leather supple, the warmth and the gentle swaying of the ship soon led her to doze off and leave the dismal memories behind.

Instead she found herself back in the hallway of the skyscraper, right before meeting Tracer, but this time there was no anxiety, only overwhelming anticipation of what was to come.

Which turned to equally overwhelming frustration when the keypad rejected the code.

The dream sequence repeated again.

This time the keypad was gone alltogether.

The door opened to a brick wall.

The appartment's floor turned to goo and swallowed her feet.

The balcony did not exist.

The sun was gone.

Over and over the situation went wrong, failing in every way she could imagine, each repetition increasing the tension in her.

Then, without any warning, Lena's face appeared, struck by the evening sun's rays.

Immediately Elani got to hee feet.

 _"We're almost there."_ , the woman announced cheerily.

The sunbeam streamed through one of the port lights.

The feelings urging her forward were met by a solid wall of rationality, the two as large and different as sky and sea outside, equally churning.

 _"Sorry again about suggesting a shooting contest."_ , the target of the entirety of Elani's perception pouted.

Every fiber of her body protested and wanted to go ahead, but her sheer willpower defied.

 _"It's easy to forget the effects on commom people when you face such situations regularly._ "

The one faction of Elani's mind fetched the memories of that intoxicating moment, the view, the sound, the scent, the sensation, all in vivid clarity, assaulting the blockade with all the finesse of a tank shell trying to penetrate reinforced concrete, pressing her into making the world perfect for a few rapid heartbeats, again.

The barrier trembled, but persisted, and every part of Elani hated her own reason as the trimaran shifted and the wonderful compulsion crumbled to dust.

Something of her inner conflict must've shown, judging by the way concern crept into Lena's voice and face.

 _"What's wrong, darling?"_

 _I still love you_ , the side of her defeated for now suggested. There was no more room for denying that.

 _"Just got up a little faster than my circulatory system would've liked."_ , Elani wrenched through a false smile instead.

Tracer relaxed before her exuberance restored itself.

 _"Come outside then! It's not a sight you want to miss!"_

With that she capered outside, leaving Elani to linger in her strife till she decided to postpone the issue to a later date.

By then they had already reached the peninsula.

The Rock of Gibraltar greeted them, dwarfing the modest buildings around it with ease, the gentle slopes covered in lush green, the less gentle escarpments showing the almost unearthly white limestone of the monumental formation, all crowned with a faint golden tint by the sunset.

Elani was taking in the sight, wondering where the Overwatch base was situated and how it interferred with the biosphere of the Rock, her mind already

creating theories out of pure habit. She may have studied the biology of smaller objects primarily , but that didn't stop her from straying into other fields.

Tracer leaned against the rail, right next to Elani, her merriment on an entirely new level, even McCree's face was warped with the faintest hint of a grin.

 _"There's a path leading from the Watchpoint to the top, you wouldn't believe the view! Beyond smashing, love, you'll see._

 _Even more so at night, when you can see the lights of the city below._

 _The south view is a little gloomy though, nothing to see but sea once you gander past the lighthouse, almost looks like the end of the world."_

Slowly the western face of the geological hulk came into view, dominated by a huge, single white area.

Tracer apparently spotted something, beheld it fondly and sighed.

 _"Home sweet home."_

By the time they passed under a road bridge and drove up the channel, their excitement had carried over to Elani as well, heightened in the moment she spotted the complex clinging to the cliff.

However, as the concrete jutted out directly above them, there was a pang of fear.

 _"How are we gonna get up there?"_ , Elani inquired, already almost certain of the answer as soon as she noticed an ambiguous object descending from above though not yet sure wether she should roll her eyes or close them at the response.

Tracer fidgeted around and was suddenly very intent on dragging Elani back belowdecks, voice urging.

 _"Why don't you, erm, help me looking for my goggles? I have misplaced them somewhere downstairs. Or I show you the engine room! There's even a electric turbine! Pretty please?"_

Elani chose to close her eyes.

 _"Due to some bizarre reason you have to lift the whole damn ship up_."

She didn't even have to open move her lids in order to see the distress on Tracer's face.

 _"Nah, not at all!"_

She counted the seconds until the rueful answer came.

 _"You're right."_

As Elani opened her eyes again, Tracer smiled apologetically.

 _"Else it might be confiscated or stolen, and the two of us have a bunch of other stuff we'd have to transport otherwise and the folks around are too afraid to help Overwatch at the moment and there's no elevator and Winston wants to upgrade its engines and..."_

Elani ended the rambling with a brief _"Nevermind."_

* * *

 **Alas, the next story arc commences!**


	6. Old Skills, New Toys

The ride upwards wouldn't have been too bad if they had not made a halt in mid-air.

Elani was back in the sofa again, fingers digging into the leather, trying to occupy her mind with a small carved plate of wood that hung from the wall and not how thin and flimsy the steel ropes had looked, how the metal frame supporting Arion's weight was rusty in a few spots and how the gusts of wind swayed them, a good two hundred meters of nothingness below them.

 _They say God made man, but Sam Colt made them equal,_ the dark-brown tile quoted.

Facing the colt had been somewhat easier than this.

A good while after the ship had jerked into movement again, Elani dared a glance outside and found they had arrived in some sort of hangar hewn into the stone, their craft swung inside by a pivoting crane that had carried them.

The last rays of the sun provided the only illumination though, nothing more than vague blocky shapes were discernible further inwards, filling a small portion of the entire space.

 _Judging by this cargo deck alone, the Watchpoint must be massive._

 _Massive and empty._

Luckily the telescopic ramp and the elevator leading the group of three deeper into the bowels of the mountain still had power.

McCree's body betrayed none of his emotions while Tracer shifted around, her eagerness not at all disturbed by the dim orange lighting in the maze-like corridors they passed.

Eventually their pace stopped at a door and led them into a larger room, cast in shadows just like the halls they had seen before.

A large rubber tire pended from the ceiling of natural rock, as well as what appeared to be some sort of space capsule.

More alarmingly, a huge, moving shape climbed around the manmade part of a wall, its limbs - all four of them - busy with something that eventually caused an electric arc to hiss through the air.

Then it jumped towards them.

Elani stumbled back, almost tripping over a stray jar of peanut butter.

McCree had his revolver out in the blink of an eye, but reholstered equally quickly, now with a grin on his face.

Even more confusing was Tracer's reaction, she charged the shape, passing the last distance with a leap, her shout of joy lighting up the chamber.

 _"Winston!"_

She almost disappeared behind two thick arms, covered with white armor plating.

The shape chuckled kindly, and, in an equally deep voice, commanded _"Athena, control if the power connection is stable again."_

The lights flashed on as Tracer separated herself from what appeared to be a gorilla in armor, the small square glasses on his nose oddly contrasting the otherwise animalistic features.

The distant memory of a newspaper article snaked its way into Elani's mind, something about a museum and a gauntlet. There certainly had been a photograph of Tracer, this gorilla may have been on it as well.

Also, she recognized his voice as the one who started this whole adventure.

Which did not make the fact that the gorilla spoke any less impressive.

 _No common people in Overwatch, indeed._

 _"Good to see you again, old friend."_ , Winston offered McCree a nod which the outlaw returned without hesitation.

 _"And welcome to you. Please excuse the troubled start, I thought rerouting the power from the communication arrays would be safe."_ , he directed at Elani lastly.

 _"How's it been going, love? Any new progress?"_ , Tracer inquired, still buzzing with joy.

 _"Some. Soon the Watchpoint will be fully operational, and Overwatch will have something to call home again."_

 _I wonder when I will call it my home as well._

Winston moved to an oval table, promptly an orange hologram of a globe appeared, pictures of at least a dozen faces floating close to its surface.

Elani didn't recognize any of them save for the three hovering around Gibraltar.

It was interesting to see them spread all over the world, a good distance between each of them safe for the three around her.

 _How many of them know Overwatch is gaining strength again?_

 _McCree can't be the only one who wants to restore its former glory._

 _"Still no answer from any of the other former Overwatch members. Including you, McCree. What has changed your mind so suddenly?"_

The desperado took a few more seconds to take in the projection, all eyes on him, before shrugging.

 _"I've been doing fine on my own, waiting for the right moment, for the evidence that Overwatch was strong enough again to make a true difference."_

Winston did not seem to approve much, but nodded nevertheless.

With a motion of his approximately human hand, the globe was replaced by a model of the complex in which they were right now.

 _"I have restored half of the generators to working condition, the communication arrays running under full load._

 _Most crew quarters and other facilities are operational again, however a few remain locked. One of them being the armory."_

 _"I can take care of that."_ , McCree announced nonchalantly and departed into a new direction without awaiting approval, apparently already familiar with the Watchpoint's layout.

 _"I'll try to hop into the observation post then! Already spotted just the right ledge in the cliff for that job last time around! I need some activity after the cruise."_ , Tracer followed.

 _"Be..."_

Tracer disappeared.

 _"...careful."_ , Winston finished and let himself sink to the floor with a grunt once he realized the two of them were gone.

 _"Those two really have a head of their own."_ , he grumbled, albeit smiling.

Now the only individuals left, Elani fidgeted around shyly as Winston inspected her, his face suddenly turning grim.

 _"Sorry, I never would've sent you on the mission if I had known Reaper was leading the Talon troops._

 _It was unresponsible of me to involve a civilian like you, out of a sudden like that._

 _You and your allies could've been killed easily."_

To her surprise, he then bowed his head.

 _"Yet I can't fathom how things would've turned out otherwise. At the very least Tracer would have been chronally dislocated again, I can't bear the thought of her living through that horror a second time. And most likely there would've been far more casulties._

 _My deepest thanks."_

Elani felt her cheeks redden at the compliment from the Overwatch agent as she mumbled something along the lines of her only doing her duty and being lucky.

 _"From what Tracer has told me your luck ran out in the end. I'm impressed to see you here after that."_

Winston smiled, and Elani simply had to return it, glowing with pride despite her best intentions.

 _"Looks like I've been right about you."_

 _"Looks like. Who is this Reaper, was he the hooded man with the white mask?"_

 _"Exactly, the one Tracer encountered in the end. He has deep connections to Talon, and is a deadly opponent."_

 _"Good thing he's gone then."_

A momentous thought wiggled through Elani's head. Tracer had reported that only one guard had been killed.

 _Had she meant Reaper? Is there no blood on my hands after all?_

A shake of Winston's head stopped the blithe notion that had started to rise within her dead in its tracks.

 _"So far he has returned from death every time, his body does not work in normal ways."_

His eyes attached themselves to a huge contraption on an orange shelf on wheels that might've been some sort of weapon, while he continued.

 _"Maybe you could try to find a way to stop him, once and for all?"_

 _Or rather contain him._

 _"I can't do much without a tissue sample. And more information about his abilities. And a lab, obviously."_

Winston nodded, the motion made his glasses slide forward a little.

 _"In due time. First we must see to your own abilities._

Lifting himself up with a huff, Winston readjusted his glasses and moved up a flight of steps, she followed by instinct after briefly letting her view wander over some of the many contraptions, tools and boxes that littered the room in some places.

They ascended to a spot overlooking the floor below them, the wall on one side barely visible behind computer screens, control surfaces and a pile of peanut butter jars. The faint scent of bananas wafted through the air, to Elani's mild puzzlement.

 _Old habits die hard, it seems._

The armored gorilla seated himself on yet another large tire, laying flat on the floor in the place of the chair.

 _"How about I replace that lost prototype of yours first? You've sacrificed it to save Lena as I've heard."_ , Winston offered.

 _"Gladly! Getting all the necessary parts and tools again through my means would take ages._

 _Most of them are one-of-a-kind. As was the device."_

She certainly did not regret the decision she made, the look in Lena's eyes as she new she was safe from her personal hell well made it up.

 _And I'm basically just a dead weight for Overwatch_ _without my contraption._

 _Just like a good sum of the other Overwatch members, judging from their pictures_ , a second thought soothed.

She produced a USB-stick, which was consequently hit by a beam of orange light.

 _"All files scanned and copied."_ , a disembodied female voice announced as Elani froze in her movement.

 _"Allow the woman some privacy!"_ , the gorilla snarled at the screen that was currently showing a logo.

 _"Sorry, Athena can be a little insensitive at times."_ , he apologized.

Once the blueprints appeared, Winston inspected them with apparent interest, scratching his chin and readjusting his glasses from time to time.

 _"Remarkably simple, the software must be where the true work is done."_

Elani nodded.

 _"The calibration is the hardest part, without all the assisting algorithms the process would be far too slow to be viable._

 _Even then, it takes one with extensive medical knowledge to handle the machine."_ , she explained with a hint of pride.

 _"However."_ , a dark finger shot up and moved inside the hologram, meeting the different technical compartments one after another

 _"There's still space for improvements._

 _I could replace your common lenses with fresnel ones, use a more efficient circuit board, sonic and spectral generator to eliminate the need for a fan and large batteries."_

His finger darted through her creation at a steady speed, suggesting an improvement to every single component, leaving her both astonished due to the gorilla's technical knowledge and a tiny bit depressed due to her own lack thereof.

 _"You missed one part."_ , she noted meekly.

 _The one that had saved Tracer's presence in this timeline._

Winston's face turned bitter.

 _"I suppose you noticed."_

 _How could I not? It made the impossible possible._

Elani knew she shouldn't complain, or endanger this newfound opportunity, but still her response was distinctly more chilled than their previous conversation. This was the work of her life, after all. Her greatest success.

This was personal.

 _"How the hell did you get hands on a part of my prototype?"_

He faced her glare unflinchingly, albeit not without a ever-so-slightly pained expression.

 _"Back when the Slipstream project failed miserably, I chose to do everything in my power to save Lena, even if it meant stealing another scientist's inventions._

 _I was prepared to face any consequences that decision created, and still am. The result was well worth it."_

Their stare persisted for a few more seconds until Elani's countenance softened.

 _"In that case, it's perfectly acceptable. Though you really should've asked for permission."_

Winston looked as if a burden had been lifted off his equally huge chest.

 _"I was not thinking too clearly back then, but thank you for forgiving me."_

Two pairs of eyes switched back to the hologram.

 _"How large will the new version be?"_ , Elani inquired, the strange realization that she, in some way, had not helped Tracer for the first time in the opera, bouncing around in her skull like a startled bee.

 _"With some effort it could me made vastly smaller."_

 _"How much smaller exactly?"_

Winston manipulated the projection with his hands, rearranging modules and molding the protective shell like putty, until an idea flashed through her head, resulting in an abrupt motion that halted his efforts.

 _If this works, joining Overwatch will have already payed itself off_ _indefinitely._

 _It would be leagues better than the last version._

Elani signed Winston to move aside and probed the virtual object herself, the method of editing becoming clear to her immediately in her eagerness.

With every passing second the elation within her doubled until it felt as if her chest might burst with euphoria.

Meanwhile, Winston regarded her from the side with a shrewd look.

At last the press of a button made the newly emerged shape permanent, and his eyes lightened up in insight.

 _"With a few more lense systems...indeed quite possible! A concept with potential!"_

An almost insane grin came upon Elani's face as she moved her right hand into her reborn magnum opus, now refined into something she could've never dreamed of before.

It literally fit like a glove.

 _"Beyond smashing."_ , she whispered to herself, suppressing a giggle that may have led her to doubt her own soundness of mind.

Pure distilled excitement pulsing through her veins, she decided to make herself a little more familiar with the Watchpoint after all efforts to accelerate the 3D printer with the power of her mind had remained fruitless.

Elani wandered through abandoned buildings on a plateau, and empty hallways hewn into the rock, took a turn right or left whenever she felt like it, not caring in the slightest about losing orientation in her giddy anticipation.

It all seemed so unreal, as if she was a ghost spooking around in halls of former glory, a full moon focussing her whenever the open sky was visible, painting a path of ice across the part of the sea of which Tracer thought looked like the end of the world

Elani experienced a macabre fascination, the same she felt when the mad scientist in the movies brought people back to life.

Maybe she would be able to best death itself one day with medical skills and hightech devices, a crazy part of her mind figured.

 _Where are the borders of science, anyway?_

 _Yet another dream to chase. Let's focus on this one first._

Suddenly there were sounds echoing around Elani, a metal clangor that led her to a doorframe, the door itself slid halfway into the wall, an adjacent keypad damaged and sizzling.

Inside she found countless lockers, crates and storage racks, mostly opened and empty.

Someone spoke to her, and Elani was pulled out of her dreamlike state.

 _"Has the gorilla genius already talked your ears off?"_ , McCree asked while fumbling with the lock of a smooth, round crate the size of a man.

Now more or less planted back in reality, the part of her mind responsible for speech had not quite finished booting up.

 _"Nevermind. Can you give me a hand?"_

Wordlessly she moved to his side where he gesticulated to a series of bolts, screws, wires and buttons.

 _"The backup battery has dissolved and ruined the electronics. We may need whatever is inside, but the box is tough as old boots. Here, hold this chisel for a moment."_

Elani complied, but dashed back as soon as she saw McCree swing a hammer down with full force.

Metal screeched against metal, sparks flew and the desperado grunted.

 _"Why did ye move, damnit? I would've hit perfectly flush."_

Laying on the floor while recovering from the shock, she spied a particular object through the perforated lower end of one of the lockers and, without further comments, attempted to pry it open with the chisel still grasped in her hand.

 _"Forget those, nothing of use in there."_

She paid the words no heed, the metal yielded with a groan and the door swung open.

Inside was a longsword, guard and pommel of a purely practical shape, the blade made out of some dark-gray alloy and still gleaming sharp.

Without further ado, she grasped the hilt, her body moving on its own as she assumed the Ochs guard of medieval longsword fencing.

McCree regarded her with confusion and scoffed _"You don't want to bring a knife to a gunfight when going against the baddies, lady."_

 _Maybe I do_ , the small crazy part within her challenged reason.

Still taciturn, she motioned him to move aside with the point of the blade.

He inched to the side, arms akimbo, eyebrows raised.

The inching soon became a proper dodge as Elani flashed forward, blade whistling through the air in a silvery gleam, point hitting one of the bolts spot-on and leaving a surprisingly deep notch.

 _This certainly is no ordinary steel,_ Elani thought as she followed with three more swift strikes that hit in the exact same spot and defeated the inferior metal.

As she repeated the procedure at the next three bolts and lifted the lid, revealing some sort of heavy weaponry underneath, McCree simply stared at her, positively flabbergasted, the cigarillo almost falling out of the corner of his mouth, its embers slowly fading.

 _"Nothing of use, huh?"_

Elani enjoyed his silence for a few moments before delivering the explanation.

 _"I used to do HEMA, Historical European Martial Arts, mostly with the longsword, until I broke a wrist during the sparring. The muscles and movements are still very much present in my mind, though, and served me quite well when I encountered those three...enemies on the recent mission."_

Her lips twisted into a grin she was unable to contain, his bafflement simply was too funny.

McCree stopped the falling cigarillo with ease and rekindled it with the lighter he could draw almost as quickly as his sixshooter.

 _"You really are a bunch of surprises, lady."_ , he commented after releasing the first new plume of smoke into the air and started to inspect the weapon now accessible.

* * *

While the desperado busied himself with the hardware, Elani continued her voyage through the mountain, still carrying the sword with her.

The metal clanked in its sheath every second step, the soft noise wafting through the motionless air before dissipating in cracks and corners.

She definitely was happy she had no claustrophobia, else being here - in an Overwatch Watchpoint, surrounded by members of the former organization that had safeguarded the world on numerous occasions - may have been impossible.

It still seemed impossible, Elani half expected to wake up in her bed any moment, finding that what she would've deemed impossible a week ago was indeed just a dream.

The cool alloy in her hand however gave her certainty of the opposite, the situation turned on its head, the fact that she was living a dream instead.

Letting her feet guide her again, Elani found herself in an area open to the elements on one side where the moon loomed through, still tall and strong.

There was a concrete surface with a single rail in its center, spotted with orange-glowing spots at regular intervals and leading to a broad, hefty door proudly displaying the Overwatch logo.

She passed the two orange crates stacked in the inner side of the concrete path's turn, ignored the new doorway on her right and instead steered right towards the patch of soil past the gray floor, where a gap between the humongous pillar and two more boxes led into the open, gave view onto lighthouse and the Mediterranean, stretching into the horizon.

If not for the moon's warped mirror image on the water, sea and sky would've fused into a single inky mass.

 _Almost like the end of the world,_ Lena had called it.

The earth on the mountain ledge revealed that someone had passed through the gap recently.

Elani inspected further, and, while keeping a healthy distance from the edge, discovered the path Tracer had mentioned earlier, the types of plants growing on the trail revealing to the practised eye that it must've seen frequent use a few years ago.

She contemplated following it, hoping to find Tracer or at the very least the marvellous view she had been promised.

However, the experiences of the day weighed her down, and the moonlight-lit way up was just a little too narrow for her taste.

 _Another challenge for another day._

Out of instinct, Elani unsheathed a foot of the blade and stood in awe as the gleam from above transformed the previously dull-gray metal into silver.

She removed the entire blade from its confinement and placed it vertically infront of her feet, the point touching the ground, her two hands grasping the hilt.

 _Just like the virtuous knights of old._

Next the woman closed her eyes, breathed in the aromatic night air deeply, all factors fitting together as perfect as the pieces of a puzzle and producing a vibrant picture.

Elani was aware of the tremendous momentum within her, something that assured not even the largest obstacle would be able to stop her on the path ahead.

There was one thing left to do, though.

The only thing that felt right.

 _With great power..._

The thought was heavy, jagged, even dangerous.

It would surely bring pain, problems and despair at some point, but Elani would choose no other to be the foundation of her being.

 _I shall never kill another human being again._

* * *

There were to white objects in Elani's field of view.

One of them would've made her feel a little queasy under normal circumstances, but the other one outweighed it with sheer excitement, several orders of magnitude stronger than any negative feelings that may plague her.

Rapture tingled in her entire body, most prominently in the hand covered by the bright-white construct.

The vastly improved and newly fabricated version of her prototype looked almost like a glove and felt like one as well, somehow Winston had managed to shrink what was previously the size of a shoebox down so much that it now fit into the tiny volume between two layers of synthetic fabric.

In the unlikely event of a snowy winter in Gibraltar, she might've just fetched a common glove for her left hand and no one would've batted an eye.

Elani flexed her right hand for what must've been the sixteenth time this morning, still not able to stop gaping at how articulate and smooth it was, despite all the the technical marvels crammed inside, far above anything she herself or any of her friends and colleagues may have ever dreamed to produce.

To add insult to injury, the internal batteries were slowly recharged with the heat radiating off her body.

And to top it off, the entire contrivance was breathable and antibacterically coated.

 _This Winston is less a scientist and much more a wizard._

 _"Hey, everybody likes new toys, but you gotta eat before you can start growing muscles."_

 _"Virima."_

 _"What?"_

 _"Pardon?"_

McCree sighed, and Elani was transported back into reality.

Her stomache complained with a dash backwards when it saw the dense, rubbery white block laying on the platter infront of her.

Pure protein straight out of the pantry, one of the few edible things in the Watchpoint, aside from bananas and peanut butter.

And about as tasty as its description sounded.

 _"Look, I like the stuff as little as you, but it's all we got right now."_

He frowned at a crumb he had removed from his facial hair.

 _"I admit eating nothing looks like a tasty alternative to this."_

Elani stabbed the white clump with a fork and watched the ensuing wave ripple across its surface.

 _"What's Virima, anyway?"_

She was glad to offer her stomache a little more time to brace itself.

 _"I just thought it was time to give this", Elani flexed her right hand again, "a term of sorts, it has been nameless long enough."_

McCree took his time taking a cigarillo from his seemingly infinite supply and lighted it.

A draft let the smoke flow around the space capsule dangling from the ceiling.

 _"Is Virima anyone I should know?"_

 _"No clue. I just took the latin words for green and hand, cut off some bits and taped the remnants together."_

 _"Sounds fair enough. What does it do?"_

 _"Move tissue, in layman terms. And create a small amount of stem cells through pulses of sonic pressure, to help the tissue reform."_

The desperado shrugged and inspected the large tire suspended from the ceiling.

 _"Sounds useful. Now c'mon, eat up your breakfast of champions. You're the one who wanted to start training."_

Elani stabbed the hunk of protein and flexed her hand again.

Then a sudden thought made her straighten up.

 _What's meat anyway, aside from protein?_

 _Lots of water, a little fat, a pinch of carbohydrates and a few other bits._

Slowly, her head turned towards the slab, then to the device she had coined Virima.

 _With this, I may be able to recreate a steak from the basic ingredients. As long as it's organic matter, Virima can manipulate it._

Instead she wolfed down the white slab and hoped it would stay down.

 _Creating food is below my innovation's dignity._

As they made their way toward the installation designated for practising, her legs remembered Elani of her lengthy nocturnal wandering.

The burning ache sparked a train of thoughts of its own, a decision that had been covered in the learning units about applied ethics.

However, it never was this close and personal.

Her own thoughts made Elani fall behind, and she felt a little nauseous, not entirely owed to her breakfast.

 _Where is the border between healing and improving?_

 _Creating live muscles would be even easier than dead meat._

 _I could strengthen my own body in no time._

 _Muscle tone, bone density, all easy as pie with this._

Again she flexed the hand. Made a decision. And smiled ruefully.

 _Or I could train the proper, the honest way._

 _"From what I can see in your movements, something close to your kidney still is aching, even though I met you two in a hospital."_

Elani's attempt to shrug it off coolly must've looked somewhat tense as the elevator carried them to a lower level.

 _"Part of the tissue is a little scarred, nothing to worry about."_

 _"How come your fancy new tool can't fix it?"_

Somehow the thought had not even appeared to her.

 _"Er, I haven't had the chance yet."_

By now only a closed door separated them from their target location.

McCree gave her a shrewd look.

 _"Look, I'm not telling you what to do. I just think that some scars should be kept. They usually remind you of a situation where you acted wrongly."_

His words made Elani feel like she had made the right choice, then and now.

* * *

 _"Just like that?"_

 _"Sure. Let me see what you already know."_

McCree barely had to lean back to avoid her first punch. Admittedly, Elani was starting off slow.

The next one was a little more serious, with equal results.

 _"And you defeated three men on your own? Really?"_

The mockery in his voice gave her next attacks extra strength, though it made no difference.

 _"With an iron bar!"_ , she huffed during a series of feeble kicks.

 _"What will you do if no iron bar is conveniently placed in your immediate surroundings, hm?"_

Elani tried to summon the clarity she had experienced in that situation in the opera, to no avail.

 _"You have no strength."_ , her opponent stated with a stern face.

 _"No speed."_

 _He's only trying to make you angry, don't fall for it._

 _"No finesse."_

 _He's right, though._

 _"No balance."_

To drive that point home, McCree did not move out of the way of the spinning kick aimed at his side.

The momentum barely moved him, while Elani lost her own footing and landed on the floor, the sudden sting in her own side likely more painful than the hit she had landed.

The desperado simply shook his head, his cigar - apparently he had found a stash of them somewhere - still smouldering happily.

 _"We have lots of work to do. Get the padded gear."_

* * *

Elani huddled on the flight of steps in the room she saw as the central of Watchpoint Gibraltar by now, trying to ignore the soreness in the muscles and joints all over her body.

Most of them she had only known by name so far.

The first day had been brutal, the second day worse, only Winston's announcement had saved her from the later part of the third one.

McCree may not possess Tracer's mind-boggling speed, but certainly could hold his own in a fight, even without his Peacemaker.

The memory of the force behind his right hook, even through all the protective layers, still made her flinch.

Yet she caught herself grinning.

 _If that's what it takes, it's a small price._

Elani's inner thoughts were followed by a voice that made her forget the pain immediately.

 _"Hey love! Already workin' hard I've heard?"_

There she was, dangling upside down from the tire above.

 _"I feel like I've been folded like origami paper. Everything hurts."_

Tracer arrived on the floor with a flip and sauntered closer.

 _"Something your posh new tool can't fix?"_ , she asked while looking at the glove-like object that enclosed, as so often these days, Elani's right hand.

Thankfully Winston had not exaggerated its shock resistance.

The other woman shrugged, unable to contain a smile.

 _"Where would be the fun in that?"_

To demonstrate Virima's other abilities, Elani activated the scan mode and let the white hand hover above her knee.

Tracer made wide eyes at the projection between glove and flesh, Winston's new lense system made sure the hologram would remain in a constant spot above the examined object as long as the device was within range.

Elani let her gape for a while before raising her voice again.

Tracer commented the end of the spectacle with a low _"Absolutely awesome."_

 _"There's something I've been meaning to ask you."_

 _"Sure."_

Her counterpart gracefully jumped over the handrail and seated herself right next to her.

Elani was not sure wether she should rate the ensuing tingling the parts of her body facing Tracer as good or bad.

 _"Shoot."_

A small part of her kept on whispering _Tell her! Dare the leap!_ , and was not referring to what she originally had in mind.

 _"I've been wondering, how exactly do your abilities work?"_ , she said instead.

 _"Ah well, you see..."_

Suddenly an unopened jar of peanut butter appeared in Tracer's hand.

 _"Since the Slipstream accident I've been disconnected from the normal flow of time."_

The jar was replaced by a spanner, and she giggled at the bafflement on Elani's face.

 _"I can accelerate or slow down my own personal time, which means I either move really fast or really slow in the normal world."_

The tool was replaced by a banana.

 _"The former is quite useful. Oh, and I can also travel back in my personal time!"_

She started peeling the banana.

 _"Which means any wounds I received will disappear as well! Sorry darling, you'll probably never get to use that fancy mitten on me."_

Elani took her time to digest these informations while Tracer continued.

 _"There are limits, obviously. I only have control over the space of a few seconds, and I can't take much stuff with me."_

Elani's hand supported her chin automatically as she was lost in thoughts, not even noticing how the flesh of the fruit disappeared equally quickly.

 _"Acceleration is related to the change in time..."_ , she murmured and then faced Tracer.

 _"How far can you jump during that time travel phase?"_

 _"What?"_

Elani had to swat the urge to move forward aside as she realized how close Tracer's face was.

 _"Hey you two lovebirds, mind giving me a hand?"_

McCree leaned through the doorway, and Elani really hoped her complexion would not turn too red.

Traber jumped to her feet immediately, so she had no other choice but to follow.

Further inwards they arrived at a crate which Elani immediately recognized as the one she had opened with assistance of the sword.

She also noticed how the desperado was breathing heabily.

 _"Winston said he'd need it up here. 21st century and still there's no hand truck anywhere, can you believe it?"_

With combined efforts they hauled the heavy container back the way two of them had come, by then Winston was waiting for them.

He already had a hologram of the complex activated and looked rather content, as far as Elani could judge his features.

As soon as they had assembled around the table, he started the report.

 _"Thanks to our efforts, Watchpoint Gibraltar is now fully functional again, I strongly hope we may use it to its full extend again one day."_

At a motion, the globe appeared again.

 _"Furthermore I've been in contact with governments all over the world to see how they are disposed towards the idea of reinstating Overwatch officially."_

His shrug told much about his success in that area.

 _"It's patchy, but definitely not hopeless."_

The next show of emotions heralded that the following point was definitely something to be pleased about.

 _"Another former Overwatch member has responded to the recall signal."_

Tracer did a jump of joy without bothering to wait for further details.

 _"Aleksandra Zaryanova, more commonly known as Zarya, has reported she will consider rejoining after the Second Omnic Crisis has been averted."_

That dampened Tracer's enthusiasm a little, though her _"Then we gotta take care of that issue as soon as possible!"_ sounded cheerful enough.

 _"The next Overwatch mission may indeed lead to Siberia, Athena's threat analysis suggests Talon might make its next big move there."_

 _The next mission._

Elani's first one as an official member of the reborn and still unofficial Overwatch organization.

 _I'm as ready as I have ever been._

Unconsciously her hand, covered in white, moved to her side.

 _And I have learned from my previous mistakes._

 _"When will we leave then?"_ , she said and tried to sound as motivated as possible.

 _Better not by plane, I hope._

The notion did not seem to delight Lena at all.

 _"Darling, don't you think it would be better if you'd get more training first?"_

 _"Like hell! I'll help you, obviously. You learn best in the field."_

Lena's eyes darted to the area covered by Elani's hand, and a hint of sorrow dripped into her face.

 _"Seeing you almost bleed out once was hard enough for me, you know?"_ , she snapped back.

Winston choked off the arguing, albeit looking not too keen on doing so.

 _"The terrorists are likely to target a disease research center in the region in order to get hands on bioweapons._

 _Elani's expertise may prove to be vital."_

He then added _"Sorry, Lena."_ , but the person in question had already stormed off and regarded them out of a far corner with sour looks as if the three remaining were all in cahoots together.

Elani chewed on her lip and looked at McCree, thinking of his previous words.

 _There won't always be an iron bar, conveniently placed._

The faintest inkling of an idea loomed in her head.

 _The sword is too large, and too obvious. Possibly even a little too dangerous for my means._

And then there was the hunk of protein.

 _I have a tool that can reshape organic material._

At last the idea formed itself in her mind with the impact of a medium-sized explosion.

 _"Winston, Virima, erm, my prototype, its locomotive effects are mostly based on the granularity of the matter, yes?"_

The gorilla genius seemed to awake from his own train of thought

 _"Uh, yes? Yes, exactly."_

A great big grin spread Elani's lips.

 _"Could you grind me some metal until the particles are as small as human cells?"_

 _"Of course. What do you need the metal dust for, though?"_

Then the realization opened his eyes a little further.

 _"Ah."_

 _This week can't get any better._

* * *

 **Sixth chapter done!**

 **Sorry to spoil you, but the reiterated Overwatch organization is not strong enough to end the Second Omnic Crisis...yet :P**

 **As long as the ideas keep flowing, I'll keep writing!**

 **And I can tell ya, I am long away from being drained off imagination!**

 **Cheers, mampfer**


	7. Mother Russia

_"You know, they actually might've sold me a ticket for this kind of train."_

Those were McCree's words as they entered their compartment in the hypertrain that would carry them, as well as some equipment, all the way to Siberia.

Winston had denied all of Tracer's suggestions to use the shuttle stationed at the Watchpoint with the explanation that its launch would draw unwanted attention, something he wanted to avoid until Overwatch was on better terms with Gibraltar.

 _Maybe one of her hidden intentions was scaring me off._

And thus they chose this type of transport instead, a derivate of the American Hypertrain, not as luxurious or roomy, the even higher speed however made up the lack of splendor perfectly well for their purpose, even though a somewhat musty smell was wafting off the cushioning.

As soon as the moonlit landscape zoomed past in blinding speed, Elani, seated at the window, tested her newly adopted ability on the dark metal ingot, trying not to focus on the bad wood imitation of the table.

Without any tactile feedback whatsoever the white glove switched on and a ghastly white ghost of the almost pitch-black alloy bar appeared in the empty space.

At a touch, the surface dented and the sides curved upward, within seconds the brick had transformed into a bowl before closing itself again to form a hollow sphere while Elani was moulding with light.

 _Winston's improvements really sped up the process incredibly._

Yet another improvement had been to add a memory system to the software so that she might save more elaborate constructions and repeat them at any given time.

As of yet the storage was mostly empty, something Elani aimed to change in the ensuing idle time.

Tracer, still disgruntled about the fact that Elani would accompany them, had started off reading a book about recent innovations in aviation but was now shooting a glance every now and then at the spectacles Elani was creating.

Eventually she flattened out the twisting metal, held the rudimentary breastplate in front of her chest and winked at the woman sitting opposite of her.

 _"Bulletproof, I promise."_

At last her frown softened, if only a little.

 _"What if they shoot your equally lovely rear, though?"_

Elani's heartrate quickened as some desperate part of her mind read an innuendo into her counterpart's words, meanwhile her rationality howled in anger as her feelings got the better over them.

Before she could flush, Elani turned towards McCree.

 _"Gotta keep my back to the wall then, right?"_

The man, who had been watching her manipulating the metal overtly from the start, simply nodded, inching closer as she produced a dagger and a set of lockpicks.

 _"Blackwatch really could've used something that."_ , he said at one point in a low voice, his interest visible in the fact he had not even attempted to light a cigar since the start of their voyage.

 _"A handy tool indeed."_ , Elani giggled as she seemingly drew a perfect copy of the longsword she found in the Watchpoint out of a puddle of inky liquid.

 _Good thing Winston was able to produce enough of the alloy in such a short time, I wouldn't want to leave without this sword._

Feeling like nothing could top that act, she collapsed the construction back into the sombre ingot, taking a moment to admire the newest addition to her arsenal before stashing it away.

 _Black and white, pain and relief._

 _Almost poetical if not for the fact that the one is easily cappable of bringing the other._

Elani spent the next few hours watching the cities, mountains and forests outside fly by, pondering thoughts of higher and lesser importance.

How and when she might distribute her invention. How she should deal with the ethic consequences, which features should be locked for the world's sake.

Overwatch, how deeply it was already changing her life.

 _Why am I scared of heights and yet have not the slightest problem sitting in a metal box dashing through the world close to the speed ouf sound?_

Elani sighed and noticed the rustling of pages.

 _And then there's that other issue._

A tunnel gave her the perfect opportunity to study Lena's reflection in the window intently.

 _What's the foundation of my feelings towards her?_

She caught herself smirking ruefully.

 _Approaching love analytically, a recipe for disaster, but the only way I know._

 _Let's see._

 _Part of me wants Lena. Badly._

 _But how can happiness be a viable argument if I, as a human, possess the gift of intelligence?_

 _Then again, I wouldn't be here if not for a dream._

Only the subtle droning of the train answered her as the darkness outside was replaced with a view over a lush valley.

Elani thought back to a balcony of glass, the ensuing warm tingling feeling certainly felt as right as anything she ever knew.

 _Even if, with all my smarts I can hardly imagine a reality where the two of us get close._

The memory urged her forward like it had always done.

 _In the worst case, a confession may let me lose her, and Overwatch, forever._

Again the two sides in her clashed turning her stomach into a hard knot.

 _If only someone could show me the right way and get me out of this gnawing limbo._

She knew she had to distract herself somehow, else she might not be of much use in Siberia.

 _"McCree, why exactly are we taking that huge heavy crate with us?"_

The desperado, who had been busy yearningly rolling a cigar between his fingers while frowning at a "No smoking." sign, now assumed a more serious countenance.

 _"It's a penetrative EMP weapon, perfect for fighting omnics."_

Tracer's face turned sour as those words were released into the compartment, McCree's eyes darted to the woman for the fraction of a second and he was quick to continue.

 _"We'll donate it to the people fighting the Second Omnic Crisis, the frontline is not too far away from our destination."_

 _"We won't fight in the war ourselves, will we?"_ , Elani asked, immediately feeling a little glum.

 _"Unlikely. We definitely won't attack the omnium factories, we're not strong enough for that."_

 _"Yet."_ , Tracer added with a smirk while turning the page.

Easy as that, Elani was at the mercy of her own thoughts again.

Somewhere in the train, she could hear someone cough.

 _It may be a long time until Overwatch has regained its old strength._

Again the someone coughed, closer this time, and she certainly did not like the sound of it.

And again.

Without further comment, Elani moved to the compartment's door, slid the curtain to the side and peered through the gap.

There was the perpetrator, a haggard bald man with blotchy yellow complexion and eyes sunken back in their sockets, the dark circles around them in combination with the taut skin gave his head an almost skull-like appearance.

Even his clothing looked off-coloured and was dappled in dusty white spots.

 _Calling that guy sick would be an euphemism._

Again the man attempted to clear his lungs somewhat, unashamedly coughing into his hands and not leaving any handrail or handle untouched as he staggered forward, past Elani.

 _"What's the matter, love?"_

Only by then she noticed she'd been shaking her head.

 _"You would almost think this fellow is intent on spreading whatever nasty disease he has as fast as possible."_ , Elani explained, back in her seat.

The further they advanced towards Krasnoyarsk, the less people remained in the train, and those few looked hard-bitten from what she could tell.

Elani could only guess that few wanted to be this close to the frontline of a war, even though the city and the surrounding land was said to be well guarded.

* * *

The station platform was covered in hard-packed snow, the air cold and dry, as it was to be expected for a November in Siberia.

Luckily they did not have to dare the slippery endeavor of transporting their weighty luggage, mechanized means took care of that.

Yet again, there was the cough.

Feeling slightly paranoid by now, Elani searched the crowd of the train station and was almost relaxed as she found the sickly man, ellbowing his way through the clutter.

 _He looks as if he might collapse any second now._

Which made his next move all the more surprising.

Without any provocation or warning, he grabbed a female passerby's forearm and broke the two bones within as easy as one might've snapped a twig.

The three of them, previously keeping their distance even though few should be able to recognize the two Overwatch agents at this kind of latitude, froze as they watched the ensuing chaos unfold.

 _"I'll catch the scumbag!"_

Tracer threw them the bag she had been carrying and disappeared after the man who had already escaped through a side exit, much faster than his condition should've allowed.

 _"317!"_ , McCree shouted after her before creating a pathway through the mass of people for Elani.

The injured woman was shouting hysterically as she clutched her oddly angled arm, the people around her forming a circle and not straying too close, though some of them seemed to be in the process of calling an ambulance.

McCree directed a few words to the woman and to the crowd Elani could not understand, presumably Russian, although the phrases were choppy and had a doubtful undertone as if he was struggling with the translation.

Meanwhile she saw to the bone fracture, grimacing as the woman let out shriek of pain.

In a few seconds it all was over, though, and Elani was faced with the same unbelieving stare she had met in the opera.

 _Virima is evidently working better than ever before,_

she thought as McCree dragged her away and towards the exit.

 _"So much about avoiding any unnecessary attention."_ , he muttered under his breath.

Outside, he steered straight towards a van marked with the number 317 where an automized contraption was loading in their belongings.

The driver honored them with a glance and kept on staring blankly ahead, leaning on the steering wheel and chewing gum.

Tracer, on the other hand, was nowhere in evidence.

 _"Didn't know you speak Russian."_

Elani was not having a good feeling about this situation.

 _Lena should have come into sight by now, the man can't possibly outrun her._

McCree shrugged, looking a little disturbed himself.

 _"Back in my Deadlock time, I used to treat with mobs all over the world, some of them in Russia._

 _The one based here in Krasnoyarsk is a nasty one, by the way."_

His frown quickly turned to surprise as Tracer appeared - coughing heavily, her eyes red and tearing, her face flushed.

 _"How on earth could that wimp hit you with pepper spray?"_

McCree almost sounded insulted.

 _"No..."_

Elani moved towards her as Tracer's body shook under her coughs.

 _"...no pepper spray."_

 _"That's clearly the work of some irritant."_ , Elani judged as Tracer was gasping for breath.

She was recovering, however.

 _"I had the weirdo cornered, but he had this smug grin on his face."_

A last coughing fit ensued as she leaned against the van.

 _"The lunatic was talking about how nobody can stop him, how he's the largest organism on earth."_

Tracer cleared her throat and wiped away the tears as McCree urged them to enter their transport.

 _"The entire time his breathing sounds strange, and next I know this happens to me."_

She continued to rub her eyes, face grim.

 _"Even moving back in my own timeline didn't help, it was already too late."_

 _"There still are residues on you."_ , Elani noticed as her own eyes started to burn.

 _"Have you touched the guy anywhere?"_

In response she coughed yet again and raised a hand, red as a boiled lobster on the inner side.

 _"Only his shoulder."_

 _Let's see how well the new scanning mode fares on this._

Tracer's hand squirmed as the light from the white glove hit the skin, and she groaned in pain.

Elani was glad the process was over almost instantly, and frowned at the results.

 _"Now that's odd."_

 _"Not anything dangerous I hope?"_ , her counterpart asked and quickly closed her hand, which earned her another twinge.

Elani tried to smile reassuringly.

 _"No, nothing poisonous."_

McCree inspected the two women intently as he lightened a cigar.

 _"There are traces of an organosulfur compound and furanocoumarins, very peculiar."_

The vapid look on Tracer's face led her to elaborate.

 _"Natural irritants you'd normally find in onions and giant hogweed. Better shield the skin where you came into contact from light."_

 _"So this fella was a plant?"_

Her disbelief would've been funny in other circumstances.

 _"Definitely no normal human, that's for sure."_

The glum ambience led her to dig through the few things she knew about the strange man.

 _He looks as if he may topple over any moment, and yet can break an arm with ease._

 _And then there's the way he has smeared his germs everywhere on the hypertrain..._

A lump started to form in Elani's throat and an unpleasent shiver rippled down her body.

 _If I had not been there to help that woman, she would've been transported to the hospital._

Dread started to rise in her.

 _The the perfect behavior to spread a new disease, via long-range railway and through hospitals. The facilitators of a pandemic._

 _"McCree, are you damn sure there has been no incident in that disease research center so far?"_

 _"None that I know of. Why?"_

Elani shot a worried glance at Tracer, not feeling so well herself.

 _"Because the onion man might be trying to infect all of us with something nasty."_

Tracer sank into her seat while McCree, fearless as ever, simply shrugged.

 _"I've got a strong immune system."_

The woman next to her motioned to grab her arm before thinking better of it.

 _"Can't you do anything about it?"_ , Tracer asked, anxiety creeping into her voice.

Elani stared at her own feet on the dirty car floor.

 _"Not if the disease is resistant to available treatment."_

 _The enemy within, something you can't fight with revolvers or pulse pistols._

 _"Until symptoms emerge I can't even confirm there's a disease in the first place."_

All that emerged right now in Elani was a lopsided sneer.

 _"With all the people around, us staying in bed for good measure would only delay the inevitable, if that makes you feel any better."_

 _Which I highly doubt._

Silence grew again until McCree snarled something at their driver.

 _"Hey, where the hell are we going? Our warehouse is further down the road!"_

The driveway they entered now was as vacant as the other streets, yet something about it seemed to unsettle McCree.

 _"The Cylinder wants to see you, Jesse."_ , their driver said slowly and with a heavy Russian accent.

The house they entered loomed over them like a dark cloud, Elani was unsure wether its facade was blackened by paint or soot, however certain that it might've looked noble in a more friendly color.

The interior displayed a sort of lukewarm splendor, the paintings on the wall were dusty, some stained, some had holes in them, but almost all of the frames were nicked, the handrail in the staircase was equally scratched and worn, the carvings looking like visions out of a deformed world.

 _"What is the Cylinder?"_ , Elani whispered. Something about the prehistoric dull brown wallpaper, the dim lighting and the ubiquitous smell of ancient wood and fabric made her feel like she wasn't allowed to raise her voice in this house.

 _"Remember the nasty Russian mob I told you about? This is their headquarter."_

McCree's relative loudness made her flinch.

 _"Heck, what are we doing here, then?"_

Tracer seemed to feel just as threatened by their surroundings as Elani.

The creaking of the steps was the only answer they received.

There was only one door on the first floor.

 _"Don't move, don't speak, don't do anything, ladies."_ , he murmured before moving inside the room.

The doorframe only let them see three of the men inside, the shadows on the floor announced two more.

The three they saw would've looked menacing enough without any more backup, though.

Two of them were brawny blokes with hard faces, one with a beard so untamed he might've passed as the pirate Blackbeard, the other one clean-shaven, however the tattoos and scarred tissue along his throat did little to make him appear any friendlier.

The third one was willowy in contrast, comstantly shifting around, adjusting his black suit, tugging at his watch or brushing back a strand of hair, the glint in his eyes and smile on his lips made Elani feel as if he might throw a knife at you with his next twitch.

McCree apparently did not mind them at all.

 _"'sup?"_ , was all he said.

The one with the fierce beard laughed and approached the desperado with open arms.

 _He looks like the exact opposite of the kind of man who does hugs._

Her thoughts proved to be true, the man stopped at arm's length and grinned wickedly.

 _"It's been a long time, Jesse McCree."_

His voice was surprisingly slick for someone of his appearance.

 _"I could've waited a little longer, Igor."_

Apparently he did not like that name very much.

The other men stepped closer.

With a sudden motion McCree produced a cigar and lighter, the ensuing reaction of his opponents made Elani draw in air sharply and enticed Tracer to hop from one foot to the other.

All of them reached for weapons holstered on shoulders, on belts or behind their backs, though none of them were faster than McCree.

Which took his time lighting the tobacco leaves, head held high, languidly looking at the faces surrounding him.

 _"Careful."_ , the bearded one warned.

 _"I'm all ears."_ , the fearless desperado replied as he tapped cinders onto the carpet floor.

 _"Coming back to Krasnoyarsk, after what you've done? You really are as insane as they say."_

 _"You referring to the raids on your drug labs or on the organ trafficking?"_

The look on the man's face made clear how much he wanted to strangle his counterpart right there and now, but was quickly replaced with a wicked grin again.

 _"There's more than one bounty on your head. Maybe even enough to cover the damages you've caused."_

 _"Oh, I don't think so. Cylinder is an awfully appropriate name, by the way."_

He flicked the cigar at the man to his right.

 _"Buddy, what's the time?"_

The willowy one paled despite his best intentions to look threatening.

 _"Close to midday."_

Somewhere in the distance, bells started to ring as if to confirm the claim, and for twelve chimes they were the only noise in the entire house.

Until McCree said three words, filled with unfamiliar glee.

 _"It's high noon."_

A single sound fluttered through the air, more a short buzz than five separate gunshots and surprisingly silent.

The two women simply stood there, petrified until the five bodies tumbled over like bags of potatoes.

 _I couldn't even see him unholstering_ , Elani thought numbly as she dashed into the room and examinated.

 _I can't reconnect neuronal networks of this complexity._

To her own surprise she felt anger well up inside her.

 _"Why did you do that?"_ , she shouted, the urge to whisper a distant memory.

 _"Why? They wanted to capture and sell me like an animal, silly. And probably do the same to you afterwards."_

 _"No, why did you kill them?"_ , she snapped, feeling as if she might explode with fury any second.

 _"You could've shot their guns, their trigger fingers, heck, the nerve fibers in their shoulders with your goddamn accuracy!"_

Now she was well below arm's length, shouting in his face.

 _"Anything, literally anything would've been better than this!"_

McCree remained as unabashed as ever.

 _"They've bribed, counterfeited, collected protection money, killed. I've brought them the justice they deserved."_

Tracer looked as if she wanted to say something, mouthed a few words but remained silent, leaning inside by clutching the doorframe.

A noise was created further inwards, behind a separating wall.

McCree pushed past Elani to inspect, but she followed him closely.

 _"That's no justice, that's murder."_

The desperado squinted his eyes at her.

There was a last man huddling in a corner behind an elaborate brazen floor lamp, pressing his body as firmly against the wall as possible, his wan face contrasting the black stubble on his chin.

 _"The last one in the Cylinder."_

On this occasion, McCree took his time, slowly dragged the Peacemaker out of its leather casing and cocked the hammer before the barrel had left the holster.

However, a hand stopped any further progress of the sights towards their target.

His eyes narrowed to savage slits, his voice turned into a low growl.

 _"Let go, kiddo."_

 _"Not when I can stop it."_

Gone was the anger from her voice, only dead serious uniformity remained.

Elani placed herself between the cowering criminal and the Overwatch member.

The desperado simply took a step to the side and raised his revolver.

 _"He's a murderer, like the rest of them."_

Elani stepped to the side as well, not at all caring about the weapon now aimed at her own chest.

Wood creaked as Lena's grip on the doorframe tightened and her knuckles whitened.

 _"I've got a man on my conscience as well."_

She inclined her head and motioned towards the other five corpses.

 _"If that's your kind justice, you'll have to shoot me right here and now."_

Elani closed her eyes, took a deep breath and waited, standing tall.

A car passed by outside, its damaged exhaust pipe creating sharp noises.

Somewhere in the distance, dogs barked.

A shiphorn echoed through the street canyons.

She imagined she could hear some choked noice out of the direction of the door.

At last someone dragged her aside and she opened her eyes to the sight of McCree's tortured-looking face.

He reholstered the revolver and dragged the last man towards the door by the neck, stopping in the middle of the five dead.

 _"If you ever do anything even remotely criminal, this will be peanuts compared to what I have in mind for you, understood?"_ , he barked while forcing him on his knees for a closer look.

Elani let herself fall onto an expensive-looking sofa, legs suddenly turned to jelly.

 _Almost alarming how easily I can face a gun when the situation requires it._

At last Lena entered and placed her posterior on a chair of dark wood with ivory inlay.

Again she mouthed words, failing to produce any sound for a good while.

The words came out hoarsely as she wiped the sweat off her brow.

 _"Darling, was that really necessary?"_

Elani let that pass without comment.

 _"I mean, McCree never would've actually shot you, but still...phew."_

Meanwhile Elani was trying not to heave at the sight of the five corpses laying on the floor, facilitated by the fact she had been convinced for the tiniest fraction that McCree would indeed pull the trigger.

 _A strange dream I'm living._

 _"Well, at least you had that bulletproof slab of metal on your person, right?"_

 _"Sure."_ , lied Elani.

 _And there goes McCree's respect for me._

* * *

Their driver watched them wordlessly as the two women entered the van again and steered back onto their previous course without asking any further questions.

 _Does he think the mobsters let us go? Does he even care?*_

If he did, then no visible signs betrayed his motives.

Lena's troubled state of mind remained visible for the rest of their drive, almost alien to her character as Elani found.

 _Is she brooding over McCree's actions or mine?*_

However she was too busy digesting the events herself to inquire.

As dismal as the small warehouse looked from the outside with its crumbling brick and small, stained square windows, a relic from simpler times, its inside was surprisingly neat and tidy.

It was evident, however, that this was just a stopgap measure until a more elaborate Overwatch hideout could be established.

The agglomeration of screens, computers and other high-tech electronic equipment in one spot certainly seemed out of place within the century-old walls, the high ceiling was only taken advantage of in half of the available area by tall shelves filled with ambiguous crates, made from wood, metal and plastics.

Sparse furnishment everywhere else left plenty of space above theit heads.

Thankfully a forklift was on site, else Elani wouldn't have known how to unload the crate that was just as huge and heavy in Siberia as in Gibraltar, McCree had not turned up yet.

As soon as everything was stowed away, she used the available electronic means to search for any out-of-the-ordinary cases of illness in the area, intent on confirming the biological threat if it real.

Meanwhile Tracer seated herself on one of the distinctly uncomfortable-looking bunks that made up their sleeping quarter, still appearing lost in thoughts and half-heartedly poking around in canned food.

 _"Strange."_ , Elani muttered and continued chewing on her lower lip as more and more evidence turned up for something she definitely had not expected.

As she turned to face the other woman to bring her the news, Elani saw that she had set the can aside and was now rubbing her hand, her face signalling that she was coming closer to a solution.

Immediately she scolded herself for forgetting about Tracer's inflamed skin.

Sifting through their supplies turned up the necessary remedy.

Elani approached her, quick and grinning.

 _"Got good news in the double pack!"_

 _"Great to hear, love! What is it?"_

By that point even the last traces of concern had vanished.

Elani tossed her a tube of balm.

 _"Something for your hand, and..."_

She forced the urge to take a seat as close to Lena as possible aside and used the next bunk instead, which proved to be just as cushy as it looked.

 _"From what I can tell about the hypothetical disease, two options exist."_ , Elani explained as her counterpart applied the ointment.

 _"I've found reports of similar cases of violence in the last few weeks, the description of the perpetrator matches our onion guy._

 _Either the incubation period is very long, or it does not exist in the first place."_

Tracer's face brightened up in an instant.

 _"In fact the entire area shows few cases of illness, compared to the surrounding land."_

 _"Well, that's marvellous news indeed!"_

She fished a peach half out of the can.

 _"And about what you did in that old dark house...",_ Tracer continued.

Despite her best efforts Elani could not take her eyes off a drop of liquid that searched its way down her chin.

"... it definitely was the right thing to do. Overwatch should never resort to killing if there are other options."

The ensuing grin infected Elani faster than any disease ever could.

 _"Facing your allies like that is much harder than facing foes."_

She giggled and harpooned the next helpless peach half.

 _"Maybe something from Reinhardt has rubbed off onto you through that longsword._

 _Gotta say I'm impressed with you, darling!"_

Judging from the expression on her face that followed Lena's next words, the peaches may have very well been lemons.

 _"One thing to dodge a bullet, something entirely different to face it willingly."_

The sight made Elani relinquish her previous decision instantly and move to her side instead.

 _"You know, sometimes I wish I had done that."_ , she frowned as she lost interest in the sweet fruits.

The sheet metal traveled the last distance towards the concrete floor through gravity and hit the ground with a clangor.

Lena blankly stared at the space between her feet.

 _"Not too long ago, Tekhartha Mondatta, an influential advocate of human-omnic relations, was assassinated_."

Her features twisted as if she just had consumed a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

 _"I was there, fighting against Widowmaker, but failing in the end._

 _She fired at me, and I disappeared through my abilities. The bullet, aimed by the perfect sniper, missed me and killed Mondatta."_

Elani was frozen, unsure how to react and wondering how the mood came to change so suddenly.

 _"They speculate his death started the Second Omnic Crisis."_

Her voice became increasingly low and brittle, in effect heart-wrenching for Elani, her mind racing to find a way to ease her pain.

 _"I should've taken the hit. Even if it would've killed me, what is my life compared to the 15,000 lost so far in the conflict?"_

At last reason and emotion in her pulled into the same direction, Elani took hold of Tracer under the chin, turned her head to face her and looked straight into her eyes.

 _"If this assassin is as perfect as you say, the next shot would've hit home and left you dead for nothing._

 _You can't possibly save everybody, don't let that drag you down or this Widowmaker will have won not once, but twice that day."_

Elani could feel Lena's chin quiver in her hand before she wrapped her arms around the other woman and took a trembling breath.

 _"Thanks."_

Separated again after what felt much too short to Elani, she wiped something out of the corner of her eye and gave her a twisted rueful smile.

 _"I know I shouldn't think like this, love. But failures cast the longest shadows."_

* * *

The miasma spread through the world like a godless whisper, a pale green mist that crept forward in slow pulses, the tiny particles of pestilence sparkling as they danced in the light of a bleak sun between conifer trunks and on grassy hilltops.

 _It's just a dream._

The invisible wall inched forward, slowly but unstoppable.

 _Just a dream._

The fumes loomed over a city, stretching across the horizon like demonic fingers, closing until they held everything and everyone in their unnoticeable grip.

 _Just a dream._

The people shifted and twisted, their faces deformed and became a single one, the sickly man, the blotchy yellow skin pulling taut as his features twisted into a smile, now looking more than ever like a skull with its teeth presented.

They dozen ghastly copies all stared at her and moved closer, sluggish but unrelentless, her throat constricting more and more with each of their languid steps.

 _Just a bad dream!_

The shapes moved on regardless, letting no escape and forcing her into a corner.

At last one of them pressed her against the wall, a fiery pain spreading through her shoulder where he held her with a grip of iron.

 _"Time to break the cycle."_ , the man said, his voice smooth and monotonous, more a sigh than proper speech.

Elani felt herself waking up, heart hammering in her chest.

Step by step the apparitions of her dreamworld faded.

The solid wall behind her back turned into a thin, slightly less solid mattress, the city ruins collapsed to form the warehouse walls, lightened by a faint orange gloom.

To Elani's right Tracer slept on her own bunk, breathing in slow and steady intervals, somewhat helping her to calm down.

Her sleep-addled mind noticed how the burning sensation still persisted, a twitch of the aching shoulder revealed a small resistance.

 _Blanket probably got stuck in the bed's awful metal frame._

A yawn rolled up her throat but would not pass through her somewhat stuck-together lips on its own and she did not muster any more effort.

Elani turned her head to the other side and frowned at the face still looming there.

The dappled visage smiled no longer, instead its features were twisted into a mechanical grin that did not reach the eyes.

 _A really stubborn nightmare._

She attempted to blink the image away, to no awail.

Soon she stopped caring and closed her eyes again, her body relaxing as she tried to sink back into sleep.

A light pressure was applied to her shoulder and brought forth a new dull spike of pain.

 _Hold on a second..._

Elani opened her eyes again, wrinkling her forehead as the sickly face reappeared.

 _"Silence."_

The thought that had formed itself in her otherwise foggy mental landscape now became as volatile like a lightning bolt and jolted through her body.

The man's hand shot forward even faster, though, closed around her throat and cut off the blood flow to her brain.

Even if any air would've passed through her airpipe, her lips were glued together far more strongly than she had noticed at first.

 _"Silence."_ , the man commanded again and relaxed his grasp a little, her skin burning where they came into contact.

Elani stopped struggling and remained silent, sensing her own heart beating even more rapidly, amplified by the pressure of the fingers around her neck.

 _"I've seen how much you value human lives. Just like me."_

Elani made no noise save for the rapid breaths streaming through her nose, but tried to pry his fingers open.

They may have very well been made out of hardened steel.

 _"I beg you, don't interfere. None of you can stop me, anyway."_

At last the vise-like grip opened as the man seated himself on a stool.

 _"I just want you to understand, you seem to be the most sensible of your little group."_

Elani sat up, too intimidated by his superhuman strength to create any more noises than necessary.

 _"Do you know the cycle theory?"_

His voice was just as low and evenly as in her dream.

Elani slowly shook her head as a shudder of dread moved through her body.

 _"A variant of describing natural phenomenon, in the form of cyclic processes on a multitude of scale levels. Nothing bold, nothing new. Except..."_

A bony finger dashed forward.

 _How can he look so frail and yet be so strong?_ , a thought managed to weasel itself through all of her other frantic cognitive coils trying to find a solution to this situation.

 _"... for the fact that this theory predicts the cycles can be broken. Nature cheated. The ordinary run of things..."_

There was the creepy smile again.

 _"... changed. On every scale. And that's what I am doing."_

Again Elani blinked a few dozen times.

 _Maybe this is just a really vivid dream after all._

 _"All I want to do is to control everybody on this planet, to redirect ressources. To avoid any unnecessary death and suffering. That's absolute reason."_

 _This guy definitely is nuts, dream or not._

 _"So please, don't come to the research facility. You may not survive the process."_

Following these words, the man simply got on his feet and casually walked away from her side.

Before disappearing behind the shelves, he faced her a last time, waved and said _"Sleep well."._

Elani just sat there, her thoughts forming knots and her mind in a general state of disorder.

Whatever had kept her lips shut now lost its strength.

As soon as she recollected herself, she jumped out of her bunk, scurried to Tracer's side and gave her a good shake.

 _"Lena! Wake up, damnit!"_

The other woman glared at her after a few seconds and groaned.

 _"Gosh, what's the matter?"_

 _"The onion guy from the train station! He was right at my side a few seconds ago!"_

Tracer simply rolled her eyes and disappeared under her blanket, only her disheveled shock of hair peeking out.

 _"Don't be silly, the alarm system would've picked up any intruder. It was just a dream. Now lemme sleep."_

Elani forcefully pulled the bedcover down and tugged at the skin of her still burning neck.

 _"Just a dream, huh?"_

The sleepy woman wiped the crumbs out of the corners of her eyes and squinted at her.

 _"What the..."_

Lena moved forward so quickly she would've almost headbutted Elani and grabbed her by the shoulders, the sudden pain in one of them made her wince.

 _"Are you really damn sure, darling?"_

* * *

 _"Nope, nothing."_

Tracer scrolled through the security protocol again, the lost shut-eye evident in her yawn, her agitated state fading visibly.

Elani sighed as she applied to cool balm to her inflamed skin. Aside from that, she was far, far away from crawling under the coverlet again.

 _"The scan revealed the very same substances you had on your hand after touching the guy. Vivid imagination is one thing, chemical agents something entirely different."_

The woman staring at the computer screen sifted through the logs yet again and frowned.

 _"Nothing larger than a small baby mouse moves past these walls without getting noticed, love. There's nothing."_

Elani added her own frown.

 _"Let's do an inspection anyway."_

 _"Nothing better than midnight exercise to fight the jetlag."_ , Tracer regarded her with a rueful smile.

 _"Just lemme get my weapon, I've had enough surprises for this night."_

In the meantime Elani had a look for herself, the countless numbers and abbrevations dashing over the screen might've very well been Russian to her, but at least they were coloured in a friendly green.

 _If not for the hard evidence, one could think I was losing my mind._

The two women patrolled along the tall shelves, Tracer keeping a pistol always at hand and Elani paying close attention to every corner with a powerful flashlight.

 _"Could he hide in one of those boxes?"_ , she stepped away from the crates to their left for good measure, but the person next to her shook her head.

 _"Nah, they're all filled to the brim, we would see the stuff laying around. And it would've showed in the protocol."_

The remaining adrenaline in her blood made the cone of light shiver ever so slightly.

 _"What did he do, anyway?"_ , Tracer put a halt to the silence building up.

 _"Warned me. Warned us. Told us to stay away from the research centre."_

Her counterpart started furrowing her brows and lagging behind.

 _"Nothing more? Awfully nice from one of the baddies. It does mean the Talon threat is real, though."_

No more words were exchanged as they paced off the next two rows.

A small hole right in the middle of the wall piqued Elani's interest, large enough to fit an arm though if not for the wire mesh covering it on both sides.

Even without you certainly wouldn't want to stick an arm through since the surace around it was covered in a slimy, pale-green layer.

 _"Reaper may be able to enter via this, but he's one of a kind as far as Overwatch knows."_

The last few words changed their pitch as Tracer yawned again, and they continued their course.

 _"You know, the guy also told me how he wanted to rule the world."_

Tracer simply shrugged.

 _"Normal, as far as evil masterminds are concerned."_

Elani tried to collect every little detail she knew about the man, threw it all into a mental pot and gave it a good stir.

By now they had arrived at the last row. The brick to their right was lightly dappled with lichen in sone spots.

 _To conquer the world...with a disease?_

 _Impossible, health organizations would definitely pick it up and counteract long before it could reach global proportions._

A new thought popped up, accompanied by a tingling sensation creeping down her spine.

 _The perfect disease is the one that goes unnoticed._

 _"Elani? Come on, don't slow down now, we're almost finished."_

 _The perfect disease...is no disease at all until it strikes._

A second thought made itself noticeable, as quick, sharp and pointy as a spearthrust.

 _"Remarkably few cases of illness in this area..."_ , she mumbled to herself.

All the single mental dots in her head shifted into a distinct picture and Elani stopped, too lost in her musings to care about Tracer's instruction.

 _"He could use a beneficial microbe as the carrier of a dormant, harmful DNA snippet to play by the rules of evolution."_

She absently scratched some of the dry brown lichen off the wall with her fingernail as she presented her musings to the World in a whisper.

 _"By the rules of nature. That would be really smart."_

The brownish lichen shifted to form the word "exactly".

Elani drew in air sharply, suddenly feeling dizzy, adrenaline replaced by queasiness and stumbling away from the outer brick wall.

The uncalculated motion let the back of her head make painful contact with one of the crates.

 _"What happened, love?"_

Tracer hurried to her side, weapon at the ready while Elani grimaced at the pain hammering inside her skull.

 _"D-did you see that?"_ , she pointed at the now perfectly normal section of the wall.

 _"A nice shade of brown, these lichens."_

Her lips pouted in concern.

 _"Hope you didn't hit your head too hard?"_

 _"No! There were was a word, just for a second."_

Tracer did not appear to be convinced and dragged her onward.

 _"Don't let paranoia mess you up, honey."_

The lichen on the wall shifted again, this time forming the number ten.

Elani's body tensed.

Nine.

 _Keep breathing._

Eight.

 _Slow and steady._

Seven.

Her efforts to calm down were fruitless.

Six.

She closed her eyes.

 _Don't lose it, Elani._

Three.

Her pulse pounded palpably in her side and Tracer snorted angrily.

Two.

 _"What's it..."_

One.

Her remaining words turned into curses as an alarm started to blare, coming from the computer central.

Tracer was behind the screens in a flash, staring at them grimly.

 _"Get your stuff!"_ , she commanded Elani after a moment, who had her arms wrapped around herself and currently in the process of regaining control over her breathing, thoughts jumbled and eyes frantically darting around.

 _The enemy inside._

Pulling the bright-white Virima glove over her trembling hands was a painfully slow process, as was finding the dark alloy ingot.

At least her mind had mostly reorganized itself.

 _"What else do I need?"_ , she directed at the other woman, who was dashing around like a bouncy ball.

 _"Move! Move! Move!"_ was her only response, as well as pushing Elani outside, into the dark and cold night.

They rushed to a garage door, she could make out a decisively sleek and fast-looking car in the gloom before Tracer forced her inside.

The ensuing rapid acceleration certainly did nkt contribute to settling her already irritated nerves and stomach.

As soon as they had left the sharp turns of the inner city behind, Elani dared to open her mouth again, heaved a sigh and raised her voice, tasting traces of gastric acid.

 _"What the heck is going on?"_

 _"The assault is going on."_

A wild grin mixed into her grim features as they sped along a straight piece of road, surrounded by bits of green and copse, and Elani could well surmise how Lena felt when piloting an aircraft.

The scene of the words forming on the brick wall repeated itself in her mind, over and over again, its mere presence making some of her thoughts unusually erratic.

 _The enemy could be everywhere._

Their headlights and the snow painted the world outside black and white, what little vegetation remained at the border of the road seemed to jitter as it zoomed past.

 _Just a gust of wind or the man beckoning us closer?_

Her view wandered through the interior of their vehicle and Elani felt another stab of anxiety.

 _Could be everywhere._

Her eyes came to rest on Tracer, and her mind split into two factions.

 _Or everyone._

 _Never._

One of them was far superior in strength.

 _At least consider..._

 _Never._

 _Don't let feelings..._

 _Never._

The adamantine disposition reduced the other one to dust, nothing more than a small nagging at the back of her head.

The prospect of fighting Talon was almost comforting at this point.

 _At least they pose a clear target._

The building was broad but low to the ground, its mostly windowless grayish facade revealing none of what happened within.

However, the wide open and unlit entrance gave the hint something was afoot, a sudden gale forced aome of the faint snowfall inside the complex.

Tracer stopped in adequate distance with a braking that Elani could feel all too well in her stomach.

 _"Better hunker down."_ , she said before jumping out of their means of transport, appeared again cautiously leaning around the corner of the entrance and was then gone from sight.

Elani used the time to reshape the sombre ingot into a sheet of body armor.

The other woman, as inhumanly quick as ever, knocked on the pane of glass soon enough and gave her a jump she definitel could've lived without.

 _"All silent so far."_

The cold air outside hit Elani like a bucket of icy water, she definitely was underdressed for these conditions.

As she stood there, arms wrapped around herself and shivering, not entirely due to the cold, Tracer briefly disappeared behind the vehicle and returned with two environmental suits, handed one over to her and promptly slipped into the other.

 _"Not taking any chances I see."_ , Elani commented, worried about the fact she had not thought about this kind of protection herself.

The rubbery material pulled itself tight on its own around the shape of their bodies, then bloated ever-so-slightly as the system created a small overpressure to keep any germs out even in the event of a hole in the suit.

 _"Rebreather will supply us with air for a few hours."_ , Tracer informed as they hurried into the research center, a unfamiliar ring added to her voice as it passed through the large plastic dome that thankfully did not limit their field of vision.

The stream of air from outside made some slips of paper twirl through the air and a sheet rattle on a notice board, an obituary by the looks of it.

Her own rapid breath sounded loud and strange in the protective confinement as they pulled the sliding doors shut and thus denied entrance to any more gusts of wind.

Elani decided to give the paper a closer inspection while Tracer worked on a computer terminal in an attempt to restore the lightning, gain more information about the current situation and, most importantly, open the security doors that prevented any further progress.

The young man on the photo looked almost unappropriately happy, smiling broadly at the camera, laboratory equipment visible in the background. She could make out the name, Nikolai B., the remaining text was in Russian.

 _Not a victim of the onion guy I hope_ , Elani frowned at the sheet and listened to the eerie silence around her, only broken by the air streaming in and out of her lungs and the blood rushing in her ears, the noise amplified by the suit.

 _Why does this feel so different from my first mission?_

Her hands still trembled, dizziness and panic came and went like ebb and flow, sinister thoughts whispered to her she was nothing but a dead weight, the mission would fail, she be shot again, Lena captured or killed, and other niceties.

 _I'd much prefer the numbness from the opera._

She seated herself on a metal trash bin, forcing her breathing to slow down to normal levels, intent on getting a hold over her emotions.

Her thoughts changed their pitch, became deeper, sterner, commanding.

 _No easy way out this time. Nothing you can't overcome, though._

 _You have the will, you can overcome any obstacles life throws at you._

As if to support her growing confidence, she could hear a shout of triumph from Tracer just as the lights switched back on.

A tiny thought asked _Does a strong will follow the brain or the heart, though?_ but was quickly snuffed out by the regained trust in herself.

 _"I'll advance, you stay behind for now. Please be careful, darling, I really don't fancy seeing you almost die for a second time."_

With that she opened the previously locked door and vanished in a whisper.

 _Time to check that terminal myself then I suppose._

Thankfully the operating system was in English.

 _Security protocols first._

Three regular accesses with keycards earlier this day, using the ID's 1343-HC, 2187-ZK and 3174-NB.

 _Few researchers for an institute of this size, the other probably have fled from the Omnic threat._

A few error messages followed, dated less than an hour ago.

 _This will be the Talon then, and us._

The system itself claimed to be free of viruses.

 _Then again, that's exactly what a system with viruses would say._

No exists had been registered in the recent past.

A contamination screening revealed an instantly-infectious concentration in one of the rooms further back, passing the airlock but slowly fading with distance and reaching zero in the entry area.

All containment measures were working as intended.

 _Almost looks like the air is laced with some sort of mild disinfectant, or maybe they use UV lights. Anyway, that's good news._

Elani's stomach did a drop however as she arrived at the life monitoring.

Only two dots appeared in the whole map of the facility, one of them seemingly disappearing constantly and popping up in a different spot, the other one stationary.

Her confidence shrinked as dread started to rise in Elani and made itself noticeable as a cold shiver creeping along her spine.

 _All dead inside here, aside from the two of us._

She moved a good deal closer to the screen and inspected the protocol for a second time.

 _No exits, no other lifesigns._

She would've rubbed her temples if not for the suit.

 _Have they managed to kill each other? Got ended by a particularly quick disease? Has Talon escaped through a different path?_

A check denied the last point, none of the walls had been breached and the windows would not open anyway, which only left few options.

 _Are the filters strong enough to keep someone like Reaper outside, though?_

As the memories about the last encounter between Tracer and Reaper surfaced, Elani instantly got to her feet and moved to follow her companion.

 _She has defeated him once at a disadvantage and emerged unscathed, she can do it again._

Her side started to itch and twitch, and Elani's features formed a rueful grin.

 _I'll throw myself into the line of fire again if that's what it takes to save her._

The reasonable part of her complained, but it simply had no say in this matter.

The newly emerged threat made the onion guy's appearance this night appear all the more like the workings of a paranoid mind.

 _I may have very well imagined finding the substances on my skin, I was not quite sound of mind after the nightmare anyway._

 _Wouldn't have been the first time I dreamt about waking up, either._

* * *

She found Tracer cowering next to a body slouching against the wall.

A reflection in the translucent material of the suit's visor concealed her face, but her dull voice conveyed well enough how miserable she felt.

 _"All dead. The two remaining scientists, and the two supposed to protect them."_

The woman turned towards Elani and straightened more or less.

 _"Same goes for the small Talon squad that stormed the place, tiny scrap of comfort there."_

Following the status report, the Overwatch member then walked off, gave the room a last cursory glance and proceeded to lean against an incubator, jaw shifting.

Elani, on the other hand, gave the corpses a closer inspection, hoping the work would drive away her own glumness somewhat.

The two scientists were easily discernible by their labcoats and nametags, their bodies sprawling behind a bulky piece of machinery where they may have taken cover, she could see at a glance that their necks were broken.

Their defenders, however, had deep visible wounds, so severe in fact that they likely caused their deaths. The pattern continued with the opponents, to her surprise all of them appeared to originate from a sharp object rather than bullets.

Puzzling as well was the absence of bullet holes and spent shell casings, the wall only perforated in a single spot which, strangely enough, was neither behind the attackers nor defenders.

 _Armed men in good cover, and yet nothing but a single shot was fired._

 _"What's further inside?"_

Tracer, lost in her thoughts, responded after small delay.

 _"Past the airlock? A mess, but no more death, thankfully."_

 _"I'll see if I can find some sort of inventory list, make sure nothing dangerous got stolen."_

The other woman was at her side in an instant, wearing a grim expression.

 _"I won't leave your side again, love."_

They passed a neatly numbered row of seven other positive pressure suits, none was missing from its regular spot.

Elani felt an uncomfortable tingling sensation as they stepped out of the chemical shower.

 _I've worked with pathogens occasionally...but not in a biosafety level 4 lab. This is where they keep the really nasty stuff._

The new environment resembled the old one closely, with its genome sequencers, microscopes and various other more or less blocky contrivances.

A new addition were the refrigerated storage facilities.

The rearmost third of the room was separated by an interior wall, as thick as a hand's width and clear from hip height up to the ceiling.

Elani was startled by an angry periodic beeping sound emerging from a screen adjacent to the sliding door separating the two workspaces.

Aggressive red Russian letters flashed at them, the cause of their distress was spotted easily: A metal box kept the gap from closing.

 _"You check the larger space, you have the perk of time travel after all."_

Tracer nodded curtly and reappeared a few seconds later at one of the cooled cabinets, already holding a printout list.

 _"Besides, what about the onion guy's warning?"_

Elani knew little more than to shrug.

 _"The filters should stop particles of any sort and we can see and hear anyone approaching through the airlock in advance."_

 _If there has even been a warning..._

As soon as Elani stepped into the space assigned to her, the magnitude of what her companion had called a mess became apparent.

As if a hurricane of destruction had just passed by, the floor was littered with dozens upon dozens of vials, most of them broken into small shards that glinted wickedly sharp in the flourescent light, scattered between them were fragments of plastic and metal as well as other small pieces of equipment.

Elani snorted in disbelief.

 _Just what kind of simpletons came up with the idea of storing deadly diseases in glass vials?_

Before she deigned the disaster a closer look, the woman placed one of the available metal stools in the stead of the metal box to make absolutelty sure the door would not close.

 _Being locked in one of the currently most fatal interiors on the planet while slowly running out of air is the last thing I need right now._

She felt a little relieved when the smaller metal objects turned out to be padded casings for the vials, and more than a little tense when she slipped on the wet floor while maneuvering around the countless stray objects and almost would've tumbled face-first into the jagged chaos.

 _Let's add getting spiked with distilled death to the list of things I'd rather not want,_

Elani thought as she checked whether Lena had seen her little stunt and continued with extra caution, heart drumming a staccato in her chest.

A list of contents was handily placed on the inside of the cold storage's door, which was not particularly well insulated anymore since said door was almost torn off its hinges.

With every single broken glass tube she picked up and ticked off the list, her stomach seemed to drop a little deeper.

 _MRSA_

 _Spanish Flu_

 _Ebola_

 _Anthrax_

 _Marburg_

 _Rare strains, to make matters worse._

Her increasingly trembling fingers made picking up the next shard more and more difficult.

 _This really is devil's kitchen._

A wave of nausea washed over her, strong enough to make her seek one the stools.

 _A single cut, a tiny hole in the suit and I'm done for._

Her eyes wandered to Tracer, behind the transparent material, and her thoughts reverted to more controlled patterns.

 _Can't let that happen._

As soon as Elani had her own breathing under control again she continued the work and came across a few terms completely unknown to her.

 _Caromyces ricinogen_

 _Clostridium botulinum superior_

 _Cyphon Z_

After working through most of the list's contents, she noticed an oily-looking dark-brown patch running through the doorway and wondered why it had escaped her attention earlier.

The sliding door closed with a soft hissing sound, but what caused Elani's heart to skip a few beats, accompanied by an icy feeling flowing down her spine, was the thin, wheezy voice she heard afterwards.

 _"You really are too headstrong for your own good."_

There he was, looking a little taller and a bit more muscular, cheeks slightly less hollow, though his complexion was as sickly as ever, albeit the pathogens troubled him little.

Elani's body was petrified, eyes riveted on the man that ignored her for the time being and instead ran a gaunt hand over one of the laboratory tables, seemingly reminiscing.

Tracer glimpsed incidentally into her general direction before turning her head so abruptly Elani might've worried about her neck under different circumstances.

This time, no reflection managed to veil her apparent fear.

Lena shouted something, banged against the barrier, even released a few shots from her pulse pistols, yet hardly a sound penetrated the thick, crystal-clear material, and if the man took note of her at all, no word or motion betrayed his caution.

Meanwhile Elani's thoughts were scrabbling over each other in the attempt to find a viable reaction.

 _Can't draw my sword, the alloy is below the protective layer._

 _My almost nonexistant fighting experience won't help against one of his caliber._

 _Gotta keep him busy, give Tracer time to open the door._

The person in question pounded against the screen right next to the door, grabbed one of the metal stools as her efforts remained fruitless and battered against the unrelenting obstacle, face increasingly pleading.

 _"Who are you?"_

The man turned around and closed his eyes for a few second, Elani feared he might lunge at her.

 _"Once I had a name."_

 _Two scientists, three keycard accesses. The last one ending on NB, shortly before the error messages._

 _NB. The obituary._

Her thoughts raced, accelerated by the latest dose of adrenaline.

 _"Are you Nikolai?"_

Something sparkled in his eyes, and his grin made her plant her back against the wall.

 _"You really are an extraordinary subject, Elani._

 _Yes, I was. Before I died."_

He moved forward a tiny step, though entirely noticeable by her heightened perception.

 _"Well, who are you now? Are you even human?"_ , she desperately tried to keep him talking, hoping her voice did not sound too shrill.

The man raised a finger, as if he was lecturing her.

 _"What is a human? By number, bacteria match the human cells in your body one to one._

 _Without their symbiosis, you could not exist."_

Again he inched closer.

 _"W-what about you?"_

Her hand found a heavy object and clung onto it.

 _"I have merely stretched the borders, am slightly more of a colony than the average human. Hm, colony..."_

He inclined his head and appeared to savour his last word slowly.

 _"That might be a good new name. Colony. Now more correct than ever before."_

Slowly, Elani had moved towards a set of drawers, increased the distance a tiny bit.

 _"What about the corpses? Have you killed these people?"_

Colony moved closer yet again, Lena's banging became progressively more frantic.

 _"Indeed I have."_

 _"You said you'd value human lives!"_

Elani flinched as she noticed how an involuntary sharpness had crept into her words.

 _"I do. I always did."_

For the first time his voice gained strength and he took a larger step towards Elani.

 _"We all worked in separate groups, on tiny snippets of DNA or RNA."_

She continued to sift through the drawers as furtively as she could.

 _"I ventured further, hacked into the system and found the whole truth. We were creating a bioweapon._

 _I revealed it to my colleagues, but they would not listen, or worse, not care. That's why they had to die."_

There was a carpet knife in one of the drawers.

 _So far, so good._

 _"What about the others?"_

She remembered their incisions vividly. Her side started to tingle.

The man calling himself Colony almost looked hurt.

 _"Failed experiments. A small price for the greater good."_

Further down, a flathead screwdriver.

 _"What's that grand scheme of yours, anyway?"_

 _Does he not realize what I'm doing, or does he not care?_

By now he could've touched her with an extended arm, and she was forced into the space be tween to cabinets, opposite to the door that would be her escape.

 _"Force humanity into global cooperation, lead them into a new age. Just think what we could accomplish if everybody working hand in hand. No more greed, no more wars among the same species. I have the necessary means to accomplish what common sense should dictate."_

Elani's field of vision had seemed to shrink with every step he took towards her, now it encompassed little more than Colony.

 _"That's insane."_

 _"That's logic, but I don't need you to understand."_

She noticed a pale protrusion on his left wrist and squirmed against the wall as firmly as she could.

 _"Now, as promised. Sorry, this will be quite uncomfortable for you."_

He smiled a smile that sent even more shivers through her body.

 _"I'd almost ask you to pray that I have adjusted the coagulant factors rightly this time, but we scientists don't pray, do we?"_

Elani jabbed the screwdriver into his belly and followed with a slash of the sharp blade.

None of the wounds produced the desired effect, or even did so much as draw blood.

Colony simply shook his head, looking faintly insulted.

 _"Your reaction is perfectly understandable, however my body doesn't work that way anymore."_

 _I still have my glove, Virima can affect him in some way. Definitely_.

 _"I sincerely hope you survive."_

Elani's hand barely managed to twitch before his own arm shot forward.

The extension on his wrist pierced the suit, her only protection against the miasma surrounding them, with ease and continued its way into the flesh of her neck with a strange, sickly sweet pulsating pain before numbness started to spread, outgoing from the entry point.

Any motion on Elani's part was halted as all of her muscles tensed at once, forcing some of the air out of her lungs through a huff.

Her brain managed to identify his target as her carotid artery, a last conscious thought added _"Not good at all."_ before her mind exploded into an airy and hazy mess.

Vaguely she felt her own heartbeat carrying a wave of heat, then cold, then heat again through her body, in the distance the wind whispered _"Welcome to the colony."_ as air whistled through a hole, ever more slowly.

There may have even been a shout floating past, dampened once by glass and once more by the silent noise ringing in her ears.

The world dribbled back into her conscience at a sluggish speed, the first thing Elani perceived was how her entire body was aching and burning feverishly, each pulse bringing forth a new throb of pain, dull in the flesh, sharp in the bones.

Also, the left side of her face felt wet and sticky.

Next the olfactory sense returned and reported a metallic and sweaty scent.

She grimaced as she opened her right eye to a tiny slit, first at the biting bright light and then at the pain the movement of her facial muscles brought forth.

The view through the visor was poor, the side closest to the floor stained with blood.

Anything further ahead was blurred, either by condensed sweat, her rebooting eyesight or possibly a combination of both.

Nevertheless it managed to reveal an arm laying in a red puddle and, in the distance, a motionless shape behind the armored glass.

Elani's mind revved up like an engine after a long, long rest, the first languid thought twisted her lips into a thin, wry smile.

 _Feels like I've caught the mother of all flus_.

She attempted to bring herself into the vertical again but sank back to the ground right away, her head feeling as if it had been placed under a jackhammer, joints complaining like well-rusted hinges.

Every fiber of her voted to stay down, close her eyes again and simply rest and sleep, sink back into sweet nothingness, an overpowering primal urge.

Then she saw how the shape behind the glass was in motion and caught up with reality a bit better.

 _The next rest may last forever._

Despite the intense corporal outcry Elani eventually got back onto her wobbly legs, vertigo counteracted by the generous support of a table.

Acting on behalf of some fuzzy incentive she stumbled towards the individual behind the door.

Her still largely muddled mind took its time recognizing the person, at least the vision had improved ever so slightly.

Lena appeared to be stuck somewhere between smiling and crying and tapped against the side of her neck, while mouthing words unbearable to her.

Elani mirrored her motion after an embarassingly long delay, first noticing the dried blood on the back of her hand and arm, then feeling the hole in the no-longer pressurized suit and lastly seeing a coinsized spot of blood, glistening wetly, on her palm.

Now the emotional numbness she had longed for earlier had arrived, her thought patterns were little but analytical.

 _An open wound in a highly infectious environment._

Without further hesitation she stepped back from the tall window and removed the suit, the process made positively excrutiating by her aching body and the sticky dried blood.

Yet Elani closed her eyes in relief and heaved a sigh as the relatively cool air hit her face and body, damp with sweat.

 _I wonder if this Colony has factored in all the germs around when calculating my chance of survival._

She shuffled after the printed list, gave up searching after the pen soon enough and instead used her left hand, still slick with her own blood, to paint the letters.

Reaching the transparent barrier for a second time was just as strenuous as the first time.

Elani pressed message, grisly in twice the sense, against the glass and smiled ruefully as she watched the puzzled shock on Lena's face unfold.

It read "don't open".

 _Hope for the best, prepare for the worst._

She searched for any clue that might've offered further information on Colony and his capabilities, every motion making her aware of how close she was to blacking out again.

As no evidence could be found, be it due to her groggt state or Colony's furtiveness, Elani resorted to taking a sample from her wound and analyzing it with the available contraptions, hoping there were still enough traces to provide a viable result.

As the machine hummed softly and she sat in front of the screen awaiting the conclusion, the febrile woman rested her eyes for a moment and used the waiting time to plan the further steps.

Let's see.

 _If whatever Colony has injected into my bloodstream will not kill me soon, if my immune system can successfully fight the miasma around me, then what?_

 _The man, or whatever he is now, defeated these filters, his disease may do the same._

 _I can't risk any more infections._

Something bleeped harshly and very close, the sound sending red-hot nails through her skull.

Her eyes opened and took their time focussing.

 _Why has the world turned sideways?_

After noticing the flaw in her thinking, Elani lifted her head off the keyboard and frowned at the bloodstained keys.

 _Time's running out, as it seems._

At least the analysis was finished.

 _Mostly human. And fungus. Could've guessed so much from the lichen._

 _DNA fragmenta from plenty other specimen as well, he really is a colony._

Elani contemplated laying down on the keyboard again, as tired as never before in her life, when she heard the door open at last with a sigh.

Lena approached cautiously, her first words escorted by a wry smile.

 _"Darn, you look awful."_

Elani's vision lost some its hue for a few seconds as the other woman pulled her out of the stool, the feeble attempts to push her away unsuccessful.

Instead the two made slow progress towards the airlock, one leaning heavily on the other.

 _"Told you not to open."_ , Elani slurred through numb lips.

 _"Love, you thought I'd leave you to die in that deathtrap? McCree has finally arrived on scene, he knows more about hacking than my humble self."_

 _"Need to contain me...may be infected..."_

She must've fainted at some point, for next she saw walls swaying by upside-down, locked behind a familiar visor as she was carried in someone's arms.

Elani turned to face the person and recognized McCree, without a suit, the sight making her heartrate move up a gear.

She groaned as her head started spinning again and mumbled _"...pathogen concentration?"_

The man gave her a crooked grin.

"Safe enough again. Just hang in there."

Elani grimaced, the bouncing motion was certainly not helping against her vertigo.

 _"Do I really look as bad as Lena says?"_

His grin got little jagged.

 _"Worse. As if you've caught the nastiest cold in the history of mankind. Your body feels like a radiator, even through the suit. Must be poison, or possibly some disease._

 _Don't worry though, we'll get you professional help in no time."_

 _"No hospital. No ordinary disease. Just lock me up safely. Hermetically sealed. Please."_

He raised his eyebrows.

 _"That may be the death of you."_

Elani snorted in response.

 _"This may be about so much more than my life."_

She grabbed him with weak fingers.

 _"See it as my dying wish if you have to. Just do it._ "

McCree's face turned grim.

 _"That I can respect, convincing Tracer will be an entirely different matter."_

His jaw shifted around as they stepped out of the complex at last, the snowfall now dense and heavy.

 _"Are you absolutely sure?"_

 _"Yeah."_

The man remained quiet for some steps before thinking better of it.

 _"You've heard our observation, how do you feel?"_

 _"Steamrolled."_ Elani answered through a parched throat, more a sigh than a word, watching the snowflakes and smiling without any feelings of remorse.

 _A sight to die for._

* * *

There was a crossroad, both paths cast in shadows, none looking better or worse than the other.

 _You have to choose_ , she reminded herself, and yet did not move forward.

 _Two roads, and none is right_ , a nagging thought murmured in the back of her mind.

 _Choose one, lose the other_ , a second voice chanted.

 _You can't live without the othe_ r, a third one stated blandly.

 _And that's why you are stuck_ , the fourth scoffed in a sickly sweet voice.

Her head felt as if it was locked in a vise, pressure ever increasing as static flooded her ears, the pain unbearable and yet inevitable.

A third path materialized itself between the old two and brought heavenly relief at last.

* * *

Static still buzzing faintly, Elani blinked.

A vague acrid scent clung to the air.

She found herself back in the warehouse, albeit in what appeared to be cubic glass cage.

Still blinking at the ceiling high above her, the most recent memories flooded back into her consciousness.

 _Pain and fever._

Elani could not even begin to understand it.

 _Now all gone._

Closer inspection of her surroundings revealed a mattress below her, the protective suit laying as an untidy heap to its footend.

In one corner of her almost invisible prison, a clunky black box stood, emitting a low droning noise, a single light pulsating on its casing.

Elani saw a jug of water standing closely, reached for it at once and regarded her own mirror image on the liquid's surface.

 _Still caked with blood._

She rubbed off the dried red layer with assistance of water and cloth, not caring about staining her attire a little more.

Her forehead wrinkled as she attempted to wrap her head around what she just saw and felt.

 _I'm not even thirsty._

Below the grime, where the flesh of her neck had been pierced, now laid a patch of unbroken skin, flawless save for a slightly more grayish shade.

A spiderweb-like gray pattern surrounded it, reaching the tip of her chin on one and clavicle on the other end.

Carefully her fingers approached the strange scar and felt absolutely no difference compared to the surrounding skin.

All of her braincells were in the process of shouting "What the hell?" as she rubbed her temples instinctively.

 _"Returned from the dead at last?"_

Her reaction was delayed by the sheer puzzlement.

There stood McCree, keeping an arm's distance from the box and grinning warmly.

 _"About time after two days in the limbo, lady."_

 _"Two days."_ , Elani mumbled as she touched the grayish skin again. _"Not nearly enough."_

 _"So, how are you feeling?"_

 _Therein lies the problem._

He waited patiently as she pondered how to wrap the truth into words properly.

 _"Fine."_

Judging by his expression, McCree did not quite believe her as he tucked his thumbs into his belt.

 _"Don't sugarcoat it._

 _Don't get me wrong, seeing you move and talk again is a great relief._

 _You would've almost caught fire from the fever until a few hours ago, and all our antibiotics were useless."_

 _"I'm serious, and just as surprised as you."_

 _"Hm."_ , grunted McCree.

The way he now stalked around the box made Elani feel as if she was some sort of exotic animal.

 _"Anyway."_ , he said after consulting a screen.

 _"Tracer will be exulting once she hears the news, she has barely left your side, metaphorically speaking, and is currently chasing the onion guy, Colony or whatever they call him now."_

McCree stepped closer, arms akimbo, his nose almost touching the confinement.

 _"So, how does death feel to you?"_

Elani absently tugged at the discoloured skin.

 _"I beg your pardon?"_

 _"Maybe my senses deceived me, but from what I could tell back there, at the facility, you walked a narrow path and you were perfectly aware of that._

 _The closest glance one can have at death, as far as I'm concerned."_ , he added with a shrug.

 _"How we behave under such circumstances tells much about our character."_

 _"Can't say I felt anything, aside from the obvious feverish effects."_

The way he slightly tilted his head made her feel as if there was a larger meaning hidden between the lines of her answer, as if he was judging her on its basis.

His face, however, lacked any recognizable emotion.

 _"Let's move back to the here and now._

 _Have you gained any insight into my condition?"_

Some rogue part of her mind was already in the process of forming theories about the slight change of skin colour.

Again he had a view at the portable screen laying closely, this one longer than the last.

 _"I'm no scientist, but whatever has bugged you is not airborne or transmissible through contact._

 _At least that's what Winston has concluded."_

 _Which means I may have very well died for nothing_ , Elani thought, noticing her inappropriately low level of glumness after that realization.

 _"Better safe than sorry, I guess. Why am I still locked up despite those news, though?"_

 _"Because they are exactly that, new._

 _I would've waited for your input anyway, to respect your initial decision."_

As soon as McCree had opened the locks and bolts that had held her temporary sickbed together and she was out of the glass box, the mostly earthy scents floating through the warehouse were strangely vivid to Elani after the time spent in the artificial atmosphere.

 _Back among the living again._

She smiled and took a deep breath.

 _Mud and oil and musty brick. Now part of my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way._

A new scent mingled with the mix and her body reacted by increasing her heartrate long before her mind caught up.

 _Conifer._

A distant buzzing noise crept into Elani's ears, somehow she knew exactly where the scent came from and promptly turned.

Tracer stood a few feet away, motionless for the moment as she stared at her.

Even as she closed the gap, her face betrayed none of her feelings, only weariness.

Then Lena reached for her, still wordless, and slowly traced the grayish pattern on her neck, from bottom to top.

A shudder went through Elani's body in response to the touch, as well as a warm tingling feeling, far more comfortable than the feverish heat she still remembered clearly.

The buzzing gained in volume, one part of her wondered why she perceived the smell of conifer with such abnormal intensity while the other part lurked in entirely different folds of her brain.

As Elani blinked, her eyes stayed shut for a second before willpower could open them.

 _Nothing's changed in that matter_ , she thought indignantly but mirrored Lena's smile nonetheless.

The other woman started a motion and Elani found herself yearning for an embrace, for further closeness, and was disappointed as the motion halted abruptly, both against her will.

The buzzing sensation faded again.

Instead Tracer took a step back and turned towards McCree, who had been regarding the two women warily.

 _"The good news, aside from Elani's miraculous recovery: I've taken the onion guy out."_

Elani's rapture shrunk a little, despite the soothing thought the reason in her offered.

 _He's too dangerous to live._

Tracer's face took a sour tint during her next words.

 _"The bad news are that I've punched his ticket four times so far. The bugger keeps coming back."_

McCree sighed.

 _"One immortal enemy would've been enough._

 _First Reaper, now the onion..."_

The low buzzing noise returned harshly and Elani felt the sudden urge to interject.

 _"Colony."_

 _"What?"_

 _"Pardon?"_

Elani scratched her humming ears.

 _"Colony, that's his preferred name. The one he chose after dying for the first time as a human."_

The two Overwatch agents shared a glance and she hastily added _"According to his own words."_

McCree shrugged.

 _"Sounds better than onion guy anyway. Tracer, would you mind marking his appearances on a map? If we can't kill him for good, we gotta capture him."_

 _"Sure thing, love."_ , she answered curtly and dashed over to their computer station, the other two following closely behind.

 _"Here. Over there. On that island. Close to that crossroad. Under the railway bridge._ "

A vibrant orange dot followed each of Tracer's taps on the map.

 _"The rascal just keeps appearing in that area, out of thin air."_

 _"Just like in the laboratory."_

Elani absent-mindedly scratched at the gray mark.

 _The blotch is bound to be an interesting conversation starter on parties, at least._

 _"He can traverse the city at his leisure, that's clear. Question is if there is some kind of base or hideout where we can lay ambush."_

McCree gave the map a closer inspection.

 _"Mostly housing and the odd spot of nature, it seems. Many hiding places."_

A tiny fragment of Elani's vision turned discoloured and blurry, and no amount of rubbing her eyes or blinking would remove it.

Following a whim, she pointed at the location where the blot lined up with the geographic picture.

 _"Maybe there? Slap bang in the middle of his occurances."_

McCree scratched his beard.

 _"Your guess is as good as mine."_

A magnifying motion revealed a strange-looking symbol where she had denoted.

 _"An old bunker? Now that's interesting."_

The two full-fledged Overwatch members glanced at her, Tracer with mild surprise, McCree suspiciously.

 _"How'd you know?"_

 _"Why, just an educated guess. Colony's body is mostly fungal, so a damp and dark place would be the obvious choice."_ , Elani shrugged and tugged back a strand of hair in an attempt to mask her own surprise.

 _"Can't argue with that."_

Without further comment McCree left for the countless supplies of their shelves and rummaged through a wooden crate.

The woman next to her leaned against the hardware smiled warmly.

 _"Great to see you back on yer feet. You really had me worried for the last two days. Why'd you refuse help, though?"_

Elani straightened with a jolt as she remembered the two still knew nothing about her conversation with Colony.

 _"Damn, I should've told you earlier. Back at the lab."_

 _"Something important, darling?"_

 _"Maybe. Colony basically wants to rule the world."_ , she said while scolding herself for missing the opportunity.

Tracer simply rolled her eyes.

 _"Nothing special among deranged persons with massive egos._

 _Remember, the lunatic said he's the largest organism on earth. Looks nowhere close to the size of a blue whale to me, though."_

Elani knew there was another important part of their conversation, but it eluded her consciousness, even as she kneaded her temple.

Only the buzzing noise, silent to her common senses, answered and brought along a headache.

 _"Wrong..."_ , she mumbled mechanically during her mental efforts.

 _"Pardon?"_

Elani sighed angrily as sifting through her memories turned up nothing.

 _"The blue whale may be the largest animal, but not the single largest organism.", Elani lectured._

 _"Most believe that parricular honor is awarded..."_

Her voice hollowed as her throat constricted, eyes widening in response to the new thoughts.

 _"...to a mushroom network in a Western part of America."_

 _"And ya think Colony is a mushroom network as well?"_

Elani thought back to the words that had appeared on the brick wall in this very warehouse, not too long ago and felt dizzy at once.

 _"I fear so."_

She jumped as McCree reappeared silently and let a plastic box, as large as a suitcase, thump between the two women.

 _"Let's move out and get the nasty bugger."_ , he suggested nonchalantly

 _"Hold on. Elani suggested that..."_

 _"...Colony actually has more in common with a mushroom than anticipated._

 _Such as being spread over a large underground area."_ , she completed while staring at the box.

The desperado did not seem discouraged at all.

 _"Even then, there's gotta be a weakpoint we can attack."_

 _"Hm..."_

Elani scratched her neck.

 _"Did his remains somehow dissolve like Reaper or sink into the ground? And where exactly did you injure him?"_

 _"Just laid there, as corpses tend to do after a good hit in the head."_

This time the buzzing in her head almost appeared to lead her to an idea.

 _"There's gotta be some sort of backup of his memories then. Taking up quite some space if it is solely mushroom-based, I'd wager."_

 _"It's decided then. Go for the dark and damp places. I'll drive."_ , McCree announced curtly and took of, plastic case in hand.

The two women shared a look and followed.

 _"What's in the box?"_

The desperado stopped and regarded Tracer as if she had asked him whether he was a good shot.

 _"Why, explosives obviously. To blow the bloke into kingdom come, once and for all."_

 _"This time you'll stay right next to us, without exception."_ , Tracer said in a commanding tone and nudged Elani with the ellbow.

* * *

 _"Damn, this lock must date back to the Soviet era."_

The two women stood by patiently as McCree attempted to pick his way through the palmsized padlock, with meager success so far.

The bunker entrance was situated on a tiny patch of uncovered soil in a back alley, a weathered boulder of concrete poking through the frozen earth, half hidden behind the dense shrubbery around it.

Where the snowy blanket was broken, the rough surface was thinly veiled with moss and lichen, the vegetation buried in the countless cracks predominantly.

 _It's surprising the frost shattering has not yet ground the stone to rubble._

Elani's left eye had reddened from the attention she gave it, though none of her efforts would remove the flaw in her vision, if any, it had grown in size, now enveloping a third of everything her left eye perceived.

To her pleasant surprise, the gray tint was gone and replaced with a rather peculiar visual effect, whatever lined up with the spot now seemed to be shaded somewhat differently, the colours had a flamboyant tint to them.

 _Seems to be no retina damage, luckily._

Furthermore there was this nauseating smell of burned rubber, she really wondered how the others could face the stench without even wrinkling their noses.

 _"Ah, shoot!"_

Small rusty crumbs trickled into the unscathed snow as McCree continued with decisively more uncouth curses and moved over to less delicate methods.

Elani gritted her teeth as the decaying metal yielded under a spanner's brute force with a piercing screech that went bone-deep.

Shortly after her agonized eardrums picked up a distant whisper but could not comprehend the jumbled words.

The thick metal door swung open with an equally painful screech and released a mildewy waft at them.

McCree cautiously leaned inside, one hand poised above his trusty revolver.

 _"First time's a charm, ladies. Walls are covered with mats of mold."_

 _"I'll scout ahead. Keep an eye on Elani."_

 _"You got it."_

Easy as ever Tracer disappeared in the gloomy hole, armed with pistol and flashlight.

A feeble gust of wind made Elani's face tingle as if a strong electric charge was close, a pinch of vertigo ensued, accompanied by the pesky buzzing sound.

McCree, arms crossed over his chest and still fixated firmly on his ward, squinted at her.

After mere seconds Tracer joined them again, looking not at all amused and rubbing her shoulder.

 _"His secret lair, definitively."_

 _"How can you be so sure?"_ , the man inquired, still not letting Elani out of his sight.

 _"The air's foggy and stings in your throat, and that's just a few steps inward."_

 _"We'll suit up, then."_

"Not possible. Something inside launched a tiny needle at me, next I know half my torso is paralyzed."

Tracer had inspected Elani's face since a moment and now her forehead wrinkled.

 _"I may not have made it back outside without my abilities._

 _Elani, dear, what happened to your eye?"_

 _"Just a little itchy."_

 _"That's not what I mean."_

She followed by stepping forward and reaching for her face, Elani had half a mind to draw back.

Whatever had made her skin hypersensitive now made the touch all the more tantalizing.

Tracer turned her head slightly to the side and and inched closer.

 _Two paths, and none is right..._

 _"Your iris...it's turned a darker shade in that lower spot and is sprinkled with...silvery grains?"_

Now it was Elani's turn to wrinkle her forehead.

 _"Now that's odd. Can't remember ever noticing that myself."_

 _"Don't get me wrong, it looks kinda fancy."_

She increased the distance and Elani was relieved as the inner pressure dropped.

 _"Must have happened recently."_

Tracer wandered off again, frowning at the bunker's entrance.

 _"Maybe even during the fever?"_ , the other woman suggested, trying to recall whether she had seen anything among those lines in her watery mirror.

 _"Is that even possible?"_ , she mumbled to herself.

 _"You tell me, love, I'm not the one studying biology."_

Out of a sudden Elani felt vertigo, as if she was falling a great distance, at the same time her body slackened.

Thoughts turned to goo, she saw herself slowly move forward, towards the entrance, like through a long and dark tunnel.

Tracer's sharp voice partially removed her stupor as she snarled _"Hey, where are you going?"_ at her, yet her lips, now strangely insensitive, returned a monotonous _"I'm immune."_ at the command of a strangely familiar voice whispering in her ear.

Her consciousness was harshly flung back into corporal control as someone yanked her back.

 _"What are you saying? "_

Her mind took its time rearranging and wondering what the hell just happened before picking up the most recent train of thought again.

 _"The numbness you mentioned, I've felt somethng similar as Colony...you know, injured me."_

Again she motioned to move underground but Tracer planted herself firmly in her path.

 _"And now you want to go inside alone? Are you daft?"_ , she hurled at her, utter disbelief on her face.

Elani's mind was set on moving ahead.

 _"What else are we gonna do? Tinker ourselves a suit of armor while Colony takes over the world?"_

Tracer placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward.

 _"So far all of your missions ended in disaster._

 _Heck, you're barely back on your feet and already seek the next one. What if Colony's down there?"_

 _"How am I supposed to gain any experience of value when you patronize me every time?"_

The rationality in her howled in protest, but remained powerless.

Tracer rolled her eyes.

 _"More experience in almost biting the dust? That's what you are looking for?"_

Elani moved back to their transport and removed a satchel with explosives and their detonator from its boot.

McCree watched the scene from a distance, looking strangely helpless, as Elani stormed to the entrance once again.

 _"Move aside."_ , she commanded, deadly serious.

Tracer faced her stare unwaveringly.

 _"Never. Not with a ridiculous theory as your only protection, and certainly not on your own."_

She had abandoned reason, next came whatever feelings she harboured for Lena.

There was something else inside Elani that propelled her forward as the buzzing filled her ears again, and it did not shy away from underhand tactics.

 _"What's with that assassination you told me about? The bullet you dodged?_

 _This is the same, only on a far larger scale._

 _15,000 is peanuts compared to the havoc Colony can wreak. I won't repeat your mistake."_

The sudden change of her opponent's expression elicited a painful pang of guilt in Elani, but she carried on nonetheless.

All the strength seemed to flow out of Lena, she mouthed a word but none left her throat as the victor elbowed her aside.

However, she grabbed her by the arm.

Elani's determination did not falter in the slightest as she looked into her pleading eyes.

 _"Please. Don't._

 _Don't make me live through this horror again."_

Elani solemnly shook her head and Lena, increasingly desperate, turned to McCree.

 _"Say something, goddamnit!"_

His view darted around between the two woman as one of them wrenched herself free and moved inside the bunker with steady strides.

As she ventured into the darkness, a low _"She's got a point, you know?"_ followed her inside, complemented by an outraged _"Ah, shut your gob!"_

The mouldy stench was indeed sickening, the air acrid and choking, becoming ever so slightly more volatile with each step.

As the rays of light became increasingly dimmer and Elani noticed she had forgotten a proper light source of her own, a third voice sounded right next to her ears that made her muscles clench at once.

 _"Well done."_

In the blink of an eye she had transformed the alloy from a protective sheet into a wickedly sharp longsword, Virima's dull green light giving the rough concrete around her an eerie sheen.

 _"Show yourself, fiend!"_

The being, formerly called Nikolai, laughed dryly.

 _"Why, I am right here."_

Elani spun around on her heel, sword whistling though the air and hitting nothing but.

 _"Don't search without, search within."_ , Colony sneered from no direction in paticular.

Elani moved just a bit further to where the corridor made a turn and pressed herself into the corner, lighting the next few meters ahead with the green glow of her contraption, back against the wall.

 _"You can't hide from me. Not anymore."_ , he whispered into her ears and sent icy fingers down her back.

Her weapon slipped from stiff fingers as she slumped to the ground and curled into a ball.

Dread stopped Elani's breathing as she pressed her hands against her temples.

 _"That's right, dear."_

 _The enemy within._

Elani couldn't say how long she had huddled in that corner, arms wrapped around her knees and tears welling in her eyes, as she gasped in the darkness and felt her world wither away.

 _All is lost. Overwatch gone, Lena gone. Now that I am the enemy._

 _Not necessarily._

A pause followed.

 _How?_

 _The new strain is a perfect success._

 _Leave me._

 _I'm afraid I can't do that, Elani._

 _Get lost._

 _Now, now. Why the long face?_

 _Begone, foul spirit!_

 _You'll see my worth soon enough._

Elani tried to stop all of her thought and closed her eyes, though that did not stop the rivulets from running over her cheeks.

She choked down a scream as the voice appeared inside her again, calm and soothing.

 _There, I gave you five minutes to calm down. Ready to move on?_

She did not respond, neither vocally nor mentally.

 _Look, I'll even help you._

With these words all of her desparation melted away as easy as a popsicle on the surface of the sun.

 _See? Now move ahead, we've got work to do. A World to reshape._

Her own inner voice took on a tone hard as steel, an immovable quality.

 _This is as far as I'm willing to go._

A new emotion surfaced.

Anger.

Slowly growing.

 _Please. We need nothing but reason._

He snuffed her ire out like a candle, but it returned right away.

Boundless.

Elani wiped away her tears and got to her feet, her jaw clenched tight.

 _I won't let you lay your hands on anyone._

Again Colony stripped her of emotions, yet the anger only came back with twice the force.

 _My my, what willpower. A shame it's guided by such lowly motives._

Elani grasped the hilt of her sword.

 _An ungainly tool._

Her other hand closed firmly around the detonator.

 _Brute force is so terribly inelegant._

She paced forward, not caring whether she would run face-first into a wall in the gloom.

 _Let's give everyone an equal chance, at least._

Burning-hot pain surged through her head and drove Elani to her knees, clutching her left eye.

 _A little gift from yours truly_.

As she removed her hand and blinked, the darkness suddenly was not quite as dark anymore.

Elani closed the one eye, then the other for testing purposes.

When the right one was shut tight, her surroundings became more or less apparent, pale and discoloured, but viably visible nonetheless.

 _Let's see if you survive my security measures as well._

The world now turned black and white, Elani moved on, the current lack of threedimensional vision only a slight hindrance in the long and straight corridor.

The air steadily grew rank and denser, burning in her lungs with each breath but posing no obstacle elsewise.

Soon enough the four slabs of concrete surrounding her turned bulbous with a layer of fungal growth, the biological blanket below her feet muffling every sound and soft as a thick carpet.

A stream of air whispered somewhere to her left just as she felt a tiny pricking sensation.

Next Elani floundered to the floor, her left leg filled with a tingling numbness that spred upwards.

 _There goes one._

 _Shut up._

She managed to get onto her two feet again and staggered forward, the simple process of walking in a straight line made sluggish and difficult by the lack of sensation.

The next needleprick further complicated her advance.

 _And two._

 _This won't stop me._

Colony's voice inside her kept counting every single hit she received.

Before long Elani felt like a stranger in her own body, controlling it like a puppet, each movement turned stiff and clumsy as her skin and flesh was slowly deprived of sensation.

The pulse in her ears, however, had turned all the more palpable, deep and slow like a large drum.

 _Thirty! Suffice to say any normal human would've died long ago._

 _What am I, then?_

 _Why, an improvement._

The floor tilted downward more steeply, collapsed doorways passed by left and right, she struggled down a flight of steps, her surroundings more and more appearing like the intestines of a gargantuan beast, twisting this and that way, dank and slimy and filled with foul gasses.

 _Eighty! Must be a new record. Or perhaps I have missed one? What's your count?_

 _Shut it._

 _No reason to get grumpy._

 _I'll get you. Soon._

 _I better hope so! The readjusted metabolism works flawlessly, I wouldn't want to miss out on that one._

After exploring a few smaller side rooms and finding nothing of interest, Elani and her unwelcome companion came to a closed double door, flanked by two large mounds of fungal matter.

 _The final test._

Cautiously she approached, turning her sword, which she would not be able to swing properly anyway in her current state, into a rudimentary shield.

One of the boils burst with a wooshing sound and something clashed with her protection, faster than the eye could see and with enough force to wrench the alloy construct from her numb fingers.

 _Too bad. You had a tremendous potential._

The next organic bolt hit Elani into the side, right where the bullet had pierced back in a time that now seemed long past.

It drove the air out of her lungs at once and sent her to the ground, now well and truly paralysed.

The blood gushing in her ears turned weaker by the second, the muscles in her chest refused to draw in a new breath.

 _A shame, now I'll have to search a new subject._

Elani was too occupied with the matters at hand to join this round of dialogue.

 _Maybe the other woman in your band of intrepid heroes? What's her name again? Tracer?_

Her tongue would not heed her command, thus Elani had only one way to vent her frustration.

 _No, no, no, no, no!_

 _Looks like you won't have a say in that matter._

Every fiber of her being screamed in rage as she thrashed against the prison the venom posed, body screaming for oxygen.

At last a current wheezed through her throat, tenuous at best yet offering an unearthly relief.

 _Now that's interesting._

The control over her body returned in small steps, the large dart still stuck in her body throbbed with an odd, distinctly uncomfortable sensation, but no pain, the needles had made sure of that.

Eventually Elani managed to reel on her own legs again, pick up her weapon and then staggered towards the double door.

They were not locked, and she could not decide whether this was good or bad.

Now the path led her into a more cavernous part, most of the open space taken up by a huge round blob, its surface covered in depressions and gashes.

Its gentle swaying made Elani feel decisively uncomfortable, and seeing Colony, now in corporal form, sit in front of the great moving mass, did not came as a great surprise to her.

 _"I'm impressed."_

Every new version seemed to resemble the person she had seen on the photo in the research center more closely, this one could almost be mistaken for a human with a particularly nasty case of the cold, the garments may have even been made from genuine fabric.

 _"Now what?"_ , the uncanny being asked and tilted its head.

Now that they had moved back to communicating through vocal means, Elani discovered her articulation had suffered quite a bit.

She was quite contend, however, to see that the detonator was still placed in her palm.

 _"Gotcha!"_ , she lisped in response.

Colony's head tilted a little further as he got out of the chair and moved closer, hands behind his back.

 _"Now, what is your next move? Blow both of us up? Hm?"_

He walked along a circular path around Elani, and she made sure to keep her eyes firmly fixed on the threat.

 _"I doubt. Because, you see, that would contradict your very being. Everything you stand for."_

 _"How that?"_ , she slurred.

Head facing forward, he smiled his creepy smile.

 _"Killing me means death in the thousands. Millions. Even more, likely."_

 _"Why, will your disease turn lethal once your life ends?"_

Colony frowned at her, genuinely appearing hurt in his feelings.

 _"As I've told you before. My only objective is to save lives, and make the world as livable as possible."_

He took on a lecturing posture.

 _"I'm mostly speaking about lives not yet started._

 _Poverty. Famine. War. Disease. Possibly even death itself. Every scourge of mankind."_

He stopped and turned to face Elani, one finger raised.

 _"I could end it all."_

Colony stood on a line with the doorway leading outside and Elani, but slowly approached the latter.

 _"Just imagine. Heaven on earth."_

It took her a moment to find her voice and stalk backwards at the same time.

 _"A dubious heaven. Under your rule."_

He shrugged and pouted.

 _"Humanity can't rule itself properly. Just look at the world and try to tell me I'm wrong."_

He moved closer still, but a motion from Elani made him stop.

Doubt rippled across his face, but was soon replaced with a wicked grin.

 _"The two of us know you won't do it."_

 _"I'd rather kill us both than see you take over the world."_

Elani aimed the point of her sword right at his chest.

Colony sighed and moved forward until the metal touched his chest.

 _"Wrong."_ , followed by eye-rolling.

 _"Well then."_

Next he moved forward, impaling himself without even so much as flinching, the blade passing through his body almost effortlessly.

Elani's thumb hovered over the trigger, all of her mind screaming at her to do something and hunting whatever part now stopped her.

Colony just stood there, halfway through the blade and with open arms.

 _"You don't kill, Elani. Now put away this toothpick and we can have a grown-up conversation."_

Elani instead retreated as fast as her legs would carry her until she reached the pulsating blob of matter, her face turned into a mask of fury as sge realized she had failed.

Colony frowned again and shook his head.

 _"A real shame. Alas, how about a deal? "_

Yet again he closed the distance.

 _"You hold me captive until you've realized your mistake."_

 _"Wha...Why?"_ , a thoroughly baffled Elani asked.

 _"I have time. My growth will be exponential anyway, the difference in lives a miniscule percentage._

 _Go ahead, place your bombs around here, this place holds the only existing template of my consciousness."_

 _"How do I know you're not lying?"_

There was the smile again.

 _"Simple. I never lie. I consider it immoral."_

At that point Elani seriously considered the option of this being nothing but a feverish dream.

 _Maybe I haven't actually awoken yet after the lab incident._

 _Or after that nightmare._

 _Or...the opera?_

 _Madness this way lies._

 _Ah, be quiet at last._

The trip back went smoother than the descent, facilitated by a modicum of sense returning to Elani's legs.

Last traces of fury in her felt deprived of a fight, the reason however made her keep a wary eye on Colony, still anticipating some sort of trickery on his part, she never let him stray too far or too close even though it was obvious how easily he could've overwhelmed her.

For now the single large projectile remained lodged in her side, caution forbidding even the shortest moment of inattention, it bled little anyway and didn't bother her otherwise at the moment.

Strangely enough the return to the surface made Elani more anxious than the opposite, she had no idea how her companions would react once they learned Colony had somehow infiltrated her mind.

 _What if his influence over me strengthens?_

 _What if he uses me as a spy for Talon, or worse yet, turns me against my allies?_

This time her very own Colony remained silent.

As the first rays of daylight appeared, Elani played with the thought of staying back and hiding in the darkness forever, simply to avoid what would come next, but moved on nonetheless.

From quite a distance she could perceive two unmistakable voices, as well as clanking noises.

 _"Think that's enough metal?"_

Lena's voice was thick with worry.

 _"What do I care? Just hurry up already!"_

 _"You should care if you don't want to choke on toxic fumes while laying paralyzed in the cozy mildew."_

 _"We never should've let Elani enter that hellhole!"_

 _"Wouldn't be the first time for her to defy all odds. She's lucky as hell."_ , snorted McCree.

 _"She almost died the other two times! And this time, Elani is all on her own."_

 _"Well, you running around in circles won't..."_

A second of silence followed.

 _"Hold on, I heard someone coming."_

The click of a cocked hammer revealed clearly how McCree planned to greet the newly arrived.

 _"Don't shoot!_ ", Elani warned before stepping into the blindingly bright light, seeing nothing but white, the intensity stinging in her left eye.

Something which she could only surmise to be Lena basically pounced on her.

However, she also made the stinger and the countless tiny needles shift in a most uncomfortable way, Elani groaned and would've fallen to her knees if not for the extra support.

As Lena jumped back with a squeak, the very same happened, and Elani rested herself against the concrete of the entrance.

 _"Oh my gosh! Sorry, sorry, sorry..."_

Elani waved off any further excuses, blinking against the sun and slowly recognizing crude shapes again.

 _"Nevermind, I'm fine."_

 _"Now that's something you don't hear often from someone with such a large spike buried in their abdomen."_ , McCree said with a hint of surprise and Tracer gasped.

 _"Fine my arse! And the other bits...like the needle I've encountered? All of those? Seriously? Must be a hundred!"_

Elani took a moment to enjoy the fresh air with deep breaths and closed her eyes, now feeling weary muscles where the narcotic substances faded.

 _"More like eighty."_ , she remarked bitterly.

 _"And one of the large caliber."_

 _"Erm, don't you want to remove it?"_

She inspected the world again, now seeing the other woman's stare, first laying on the stinger, then shifting to her face, her eyes, unlike Elani's, opened wide.

She was dimly aware of the sound of footsteps moving away.

"Your iris. It spread. All across"

Elani frowned and closed her two visual channels again, the view almost painfully detailed and vibrant in one of them.

 _"Just what the hell happened in the bunker?"_

Deciding now was as good a time as any, she slowly removed the largest foreign object, grimacing at the highly odd sensation and the first tendrils of pain.

Closing the wound with Virima was as easy as ever, the low blood flow around the area piqued her interest especially.

 _Yet another souvenir from Colony._

The open question did not trouble her in the slightest however, the most urgent business Elani currently wanted to tend to was laying down and possibly sleeping for a few hours.

Her plans were rudely interrupted when someone gently nudged her, eliciting a grunt, and started pulling out the needles, which tankfully still was a painless process.

Solely by feeling the heat of her body on her own face, Elani couls tell exactly where Tracer was.

 _"Not almost gonna die on me once again, are you, love?"_

That actually caused her to smile.

 _"Nah, already took care of that underground."_

She opened her eyes once more and saw Tracer faintly grinning back at her.

 _"So, what has the bastard put you through?"_

Gone was the smile, replaced by a sour expression.

What she now concluded were other heightened senses, just like her left eye, made Elani perceive with an attention to detail previously unprecedented, save for maybe one occasion, and now turned Lena all the more enchanting as she smiled reassuringly and touched her shoulder.

 _"Don't worry, it's all over now."_

A lump formed in her throat and Elani really, really wished she could captivate this moment, this smile, forever.

She opened her mouth to deliver the grave news but her vocal cords remained motionless, receiving no viable command as Elani waited for something, though she could not tell what exactly.

A second time she attempted to speak, with similar result while the other woman kept removing the thin, glassy needles from her flesh.

Tracer chose to react to her silence by kindly patting her arm.

 _"Just tell us later, when we're back at the base."_

Elani relaxed immediately at that prospect, felt really bad about it and gritted her teeth in result.

 _I willingly pose a huge security risk, merely because I can't bear the thought of losing you,_

 _because of my own damn selfish feelings._

She must've dozed of, for when Elani opened her eyes again, the shadows around her had changed their position.

Seeing the world through her now mismatched optical means proved to be both interesting and irritating at the same time.

A last twinge reminded her of another presence in the immediate vicinity, as well as a rustling sound and a faint thermal perception.

She even imagined to hear a heartbeat.

 _At least not all of Colony's changes are bad...a small crumb of comfort._

 _"I think that was the last one, Miss Porcupine! How about we get ya back to the base for some well-deserved rest?"_

Elani yawned to prove the point.

" _It's decided then."_ , Tracer smiled and pulled her to her feet.

* * *

They arrived in their temporary home to the sight of McCree facing Colony, one of them now sitting cross-legged within the confinement that had housed Elani not too long ago.

The two kept staring at each other in perfect silence even as the newcomers joined them.

 _"Took you long enough. About time for some interrogation."_ , McCree noted without ever letting his eyes stray from his oponent.

Colony stood up and moved right up to the transparent wall, head inclined ever so slightly and arms crossed behind his back.

 _"I'm all ears."_ , he said in a calm voice, smirking in his own peculiar way.

McCree, who had chosen to cross his arms over his chest instead, regarded him sternly for quite a long time before posing the first question.

 _"Who exactly are you?"_

 _"Why, Colony! I'm surprised our mutual friend has not introduced me."_ he replied, his glance sending a shiver along her spine.

 _"Give us your real name.",_ an unabashed McCree commanded.

 _"Colony is the only one I have. Or maybe you confuse me for my creator, Nikolai."_

 _"Who is Nikolai, then?"_

 _"Nikolai used to work in the research center you've deigned to visit, that is until his demise, a few weeks ago."_

 _"Why..."_

McCree was cut short by a not too pleased-looking Tracer.

 _"What have you done to Elani, freak?",_ she asked without mustering the effort to conceal her contempt.

Colony hastily took a step back in feigned surprise.

 _"What I have done to her? One could almost think you imply I've harmed Elani in some way."_

 _"Stop playing games. She almost died."_

 _"If anything I saved her life! Without my strain, the other diseases surely would've ended her in a most uncomfortable way."_

 _"You fail to mention how you tore her suit in the first place."_ , Tracer scoffed back.

 _"And now her iris has changed colour! Spit it out, what does that bloody strain of yours do?"_

 _"Simple. It improves."_

 _I gotta tell them_ , Elani declared, feeling her throat parching at once.

Her drooping lids and weary muscles made her reconsider though, her bunk called out to her like a siren and without wasting any further words she crawled onto the blanket, hearing a humming sound somewhere in the distance as her companion's voices slowly faded into the soft nothingness.

 _"You can't honestly expect us to..."_

 _"...can't stop the new cycle."_

The voice within has been quiet for a good time now, maybe he can't communicate through the hermetic barrier.

The notion made Elani fall asleep with a grin on her face.

She was still grinning as the world rebuilt itself around her, possibly feeling elated, a buzzing sensation making her saunter forward effortlessy, euphoria without visible source tingling in her veins.

Her sword swayed languidly in her hand, glistening with a vibrant colour, her ears picking up a dripping noise every odd few steps.

Colony mirrored her expression as she approached the glassy wall, at some point Elani's own reflection smirked back, her face freckled with red, a shape visible in the background, laying motionless on the floor.

 _"At last."_

The scene melted, darkened and reformed itself into a dimly lit alley, a lone person standing in the tight cone of light below a streetlamp, Elani however prowling in the shadows, her body moving on its own accord, as silent as the waning moon above.

She wanted to shout, but no voice nor sound left her throat as she lept at the individual and helplessly watched the ghastly-white stinger on her wrist pierce its neck, feeling the blood pulse against her palm, then wandered on just as wordlessly to the next lantern, the next prey, following the endless road, again and again the same face stared at her in disbelief, until her hands were sticky with dried blood and her footsteps left a red trail in their wake and Elani stopped throwing herself against the invisible chains guiding her.

Unable to close her eyes she had to watch the next victim struggle, but this time something was different, her body followed her own commands at last.

Immediately she pushed the person away, struggling against a resistance and inching backward with all her force.

Elani felt herself falling, a sharp pain at the back of her head blurred her vision and the taste of blood in her mouth made her gag as she crawled away, somehow the person got closer still and grabbed her shoulders despite all her squirming.

 _"Not again, not again."_ she slurred feebly and closed her eyes, feeling the numbness return to her limbs and knowing she was forced to repeat the horrible deed yet again.

The person shook her and patted her cheek.

 _"Elani, wake up, damnit!"_

Elani's body slackened at once, she found herself on the warehouse floor, Lena's concerned face above her, pain flaring where she had bitten her tongue and coursing through her brain as she straightened up.

 _"What's gotten into you, darling? You kept shouting at someone to run away."_

She staggered to her feet and noticed Colony, standing straight and unmoving, staring at her.

 _"Just bad dreams.",_ she replied while rubbing the aching part of her skull that had made contact with the floor.

 _How long will they remain dreams, though?_ , she thought, her countenance turning even more sour as an all too familiar voice made itself noticeable.

 _Do not worry, I'm very patient._

After assuring Tracer everything was alright Elani moved to bed once more, though only throwing herself around fitfully, not daring to sleep again in fear of the nightmare returning, or worse yet, turning into reality.

She wondered how it all changed so much in less than a week and eventually came to a conclusion, staring blankly at the ceiling high above.

 _Just one last, normal day with them is all I ask for, then I'll confess._

 _No matter the consequences._

* * *

 _It really looks kinda fancy._

Elani inspected her discoloured eye with assistance of the circular mirror in her palm.

The iris had darkened a little in a few seemingly random spots and the scintillating grains Tracer had mentioned now formed thin silvery lines, stretching more or less through the colourful part and even a little into the pupil.

Again her view darted to Virima's scan, again she wished it was more detailed, the blurred image of the rod and cone cells within the transformed eye hardly satisfied her professional curiosity.

Now that Tracer and McCree had left the warehouse, alomg with their prisoner, to see to the embodied Colony's secure transport to Gibraltar, the one inside her had been suspiciously silent.

Elani, however, was perfectly aware of how he probed the limits of his control over her body, pried at the mental barriers, and, to her vexation, seemed to move the border further ahead every time he tried.

A droning sensation crept down the arm holding the small mirror, causing the muscles to tremble.

Elani's dire mood deepened as she watched her fingers twitch and convulse, witnessing the conflict within firsthand.

A dull pain throbbed behind her temples and her neck felt stiff and sore, the symptoms amplified by the nonexistent night's rest.

 _A single day before facing judgement, that's all I want._

Her eye stares back at her, taunting her most severe failure so far, until the reflective surface broke with a crack and the shards cut into her palm, the pain feeling hollow and distant through the sorrow clouding her mind.

 _I wonder what they'll do once they know the truth._

 _Lock me up, plain and simple, most likely. Maybe throw me into a cell with Colony, now that I am his twisted creation._

 _I highly doubt they'll kill me, though that might be the best option. Raze out the vicious new strain in the earliest stage, take no chances._

 _End my life before I lose my last shred of dignity, before I break my only oath._

Elani stared at the red stain on the floor, wondering if there would ever be the blood of someone else dripping from her hand, wondering how long she still would be able to feel anything at all, and kept staring even when she sensed Tracer and McCree return.

A glance at Lena brought the well-known rapture, however the feeling was dwarfed easily by a bitter aftertaste.

 _One day. Will she still treat me kindly after this evening?_

 _Does she even remotely feel what I do for her, right now?_

The now cheerful woman provided a stark contrast to Elani's gloom, the glee in her voice making the sulker painfully aware how different it all could've been.

 _"Colony is well-parcelled and heading for Watchpoint Gibraltar._

 _Our last task here is delivering the EMP weapon to the frontline, maybe we'll even have a little chat with Zarya there!"_

As she approached, Elani hastily closed her hand and put her foot over the bloody patch, hoping the pain resulting from the shards shifting along the wound did not show in her face.

 _"How you feeling, love? Slept well?"_

 _"Sure, like a log."_ , Elani feigned a grin.

 _Like a log in a riptide, maybe. But you'll have more than enough to worry about later, no need to trouble you at this point._

She was most thankful Lena did not see through her lie.

 _"Marvellous! Let's move the bulky box to the army's logistic center then."_

* * *

 **A real behemoth of a chapter this time!**

 **Sorry if it made the reading inconvenient in some way, but I couldn't fathom a sensible way of splitting it up.**

 **Anyway, I really do hope you find my writing enjoyable even after the legions of words that now lay behind you.**

 **Fret not, I actually do have an ending in mind. A happy one, even, and a pleasant one, if I do say so myself.**

 **No idea when we'll get there, my guess lies in the region of aroundabout another fifteen to twenty thousand words.**

 **As alway, thanks for reading! I really value the practise.**


	8. Frontline

Elani slowly flexed her hand, the cut on its palm covered by a simple bandage, and watched the lanfscape fly by.

An unexpected warm breeze had melted the recent snowfall and revealed a surprising amount of green.

 _At least this day won't be quite as bleak as the last few_.

Ironically, a twinge of pain brought a smile to her face.

 _And a tiny new scar to keep the simpler days in good memory._

The smile gained a rueful shade.

 _A time when we were good and they bad, before the reborn Overwatch was infiltrated and lost its new trainee to a foe._

All too soon they reached their destination, were waved through the checkpoint and found themselves surrounded by tents, sturdy-looking crates and countless pieces of military equipment.

Above all of them towered a humongous humanoid mech, tall as a building and well protected by thick blocky armor, its red accents and long-barelled weaponry further enhancing the aggressive look.

A soldier led them past the walker and Elani could not help but stare up in awe and greatly appreciate the fact they would never have to face this beast in battle.

The few other weaponized bipedals, while still intimidating at thrice the size of a man, seemed tame in comparison.

Her companions regarded the plethora of contraptions around them with equally keen interest, but nothing came close to Tracer's ogling at a pair of aeronautical vehicles, the four large rotable jet engines, short tail and wide belly leading to an overall chubby appearance.

Elani knew she had to drag Tracer along once she saw the ace pilot furtively creeping closer with a suspicious glint in her eyes, a moment of inattention and she may have very well decided to hop in and take a quick spin.

Still giddy with excitement, she kept on mumbling a stream of what Elani could only assume to be technical facts about the object in question.

 _"The Borey-17. Ablative plating, SCA grade 4 armor, mach 3 from standing start in half a minute..."_

Still drooling over the aircraft, she out of a sudden grabbed her counterpart with what might've been interpreted as a volatile glint in her eyes.

 _"200 kilonewton thrust - per engine! And a radar cross-section the size of a dime! Can you believe it?"_

Elani knew little more than to shrug and smile thinly.

 _"Almost as good as the Slipstream."_ , Tracer declared with a dreamy expression and let go of her again.

At last they arrived at a noticeably larger tent, one side open to the elements.

Their guiding soldier saluted and briskly said a few words in a language foreign to Elani.

Inside the tent, on a metal platform about a feet above the ground, a man leaned over a holographic map table, its projections dividing his face into red and blue in the shady tent.

Dismissing the soldier with a single word without even looking up, he kept inspecting the map which, judging by his soured face, presented no comforting news.

After a moment he moved around the table and towards the three Overwatch members, standing a head taller than them due to his elevated position.

Now lit by daylight, he turned out to be a tall and well-built man despite his advanced age, the tooth of time only showing through his baldness, though a most impressive salt-and-pepper moustache somewhat remedied the lack of scalp hair.

Elani felt the sudden, silly urge to salute as well.

To her surprise, the commander bowed slightly instead and spoke to them with hardly any accent.

 _"In the name of the people of Siberia, I thank you for your support._

 _The technology you've delivered is certain to alleviate our struggle against the Omnic threat._

 _I'll make certain word reaches Miss Zaryanova."_

McCree looked as if he was brooding over an apt answer until Tracer stepped forward, grinning from ear to ear.

 _"Why, always glad to help. Is Zarya nearby, perchance?"_

The commander shook his head, but that did little to wane her enthusiasm.

 _"Omnic troops are harrying our forces across a wide front."_ , he explained with a swipe of his hand along the tactical map.

 _"We need every soldier we can muster, especially those as able as her."_

Tracer nodded understandingly.

 _"Maybe we can help you in some way, now that we're here?"_

The next shake of his head seemed to hit the woman more deeply.

" _Not without detailed analysis of your competences, along with medical examination and the express written command of..."_

The commander was rudely interrupted as two new soldiers arrived, one of them wide-eyed and looking haunted, the hastily applied bandage around his chest already stained with red splotches.

A soft drizzle had started.

The wounded one, still heavily leaning on his comrade, started sputtering words Elani could not comprehend, Tracer appeared equally surprised.

McCree's posture, however, stiffened as the first drops dripped of the brim of his hat, and sparked a sliver of anxiety in Elani.

A sliver which rapidly grew in size as the commander became increasingly whey-faced.

Once the newly arrived had finished, he rumpled his moustache, mumbled _"Gospodi pomilui."_ ,wiped beads of sweat off his forehead, returned to the map and left them in silence.

 _"McCree, would you please tell him I can treat his wounds in a flash?"_

The desperado had removed his hat for the time being and fixed his eyes on some point in the distance and it took him a moment to regain his thoughts.

 _"Wha...? Ah, yes, of course."_

Elani inspected the man's wounds and found what appeared to be a clean penetrating wound, and, to her astonishment, tiny metal shards not hailing from a bullet, mostly around the entry wound.

The wounded one remained calm, albeit suspicious during the procedure but once the job was done grasped her hand firmly and uttered what could only ever be a word of thanks.

She then noticed the commander glancing at her and, at the same time, felt a despised presence in her mind.

A tingling sensation snaked down her spine and bounced around in her legs, though she was able to mask it well enough.

The same could not be said for the commander's distress.

 _"Again I must offer my heartfelt thanks. Lieutenant Davydov, a Bogatyr pilot, a superb one even. Once the best of his unit..."_

His expression darkened further as he leaned heavily on the table, unabashedly squashing Krasnojarsk beneath his posterior.

 _"...and now the last one. The Tassekansk front has experienced a crushing defeat, if not for the speed and agility of his Svyatogor variant, he wouldn't have made it out alive. Dire tidings indeed."_

The man straightened up again and let his sullen gaze wander over the three of them.

 _"I can't command..."_ , the commander started, then apparently gained some sort of insight and stepped off the metal platform and into the increasingly mushy morass.

Now on eye level, he recommenced.

 _"With the lives of my men in mind, I humbly ask for your aid._

 _With the frontline broken, this supply center will very likely be their next target._

 _While there's an abundance of machinery, few know how to operate it."_

A moment of silence followed.

 _"I have seen the last Omnic Crisis from start to finish, at first hand._

 _A victory it was for my motherland, one bought dearly with blood and sweat, without Overwatch._

 _I can't allow our supplies to be damaged, or worse yet, fall into the enemy's hands."_

As Elani wrestled for the sovereign control over her body once again, her two companions had grown stern to the bone.

 _"There's a village, a small distance from here, situaded between us and the advancing Omnic troops._

 _Half reduced to rubble, but it will offer my men a better fighting chance if we move quickly and entrench ourselves._

 _Will you help us?"_

Tracer, placed in the middle of them, first glanced at McCree, who nodded firmly after a moment of hesitation.

Next she frowned at the other woman at her side.

Elani sighed, then smirked.

 _One last good deed before it all ends, I wouldn't have it any other way._

Once she gave an approving sign, Tracer's scowl was usurped by an impish grin.

 _"We'll help you. Under the condition I get to fly one of those lovely Borey-17's."_

* * *

Elani did not like the transport.

The ride was bumpy and some part of the armoured personnel carrier was creaking constantly, but those were minor annoyances to her.

The other combat medics in the well-protected interior all were busy in some way or another.

A duo played cards, as far as the swaying vehicle allowed them.

Others studied maps, had a long gander at wrinkled or unworn photos, rubbed lucky charms, shut their eyes in silent prayers. One even cried openly, without making any effort to wipe away the tears.

Again those things did not trouble Elami in the slightest.

Instead she stared at the empty seat opposite of her, not feeling a single emotion, neither good nor bad.

 _I'm in a warzone, on my way to a battlefield._

 _I know I should feel something._

 _Fear, remorse, maybe even anticipation._

 _This void is not normal. Not human._

 _Maybe yet another change made by Colony._

To her pleasant surprise, the other voice in her head evoked a thin pang of hate.

 _I haven't touched your mind in that matter._

Any further communication with her involuntary lodger was halted as the soldier to her left leaned over and presented a tablet displaying the map of some city to Elani.

 _"We make our stand here. Park along main road. Solid cover there._

 _Houses destroyed except those. Good shooting position."_

Shapes emerged from the plane and formed an expanse of ruins, only broken by the few mentioned buildings.

 _"How come the Omnic forces will meet us where we can fight on our terms?", Elani could not help but wonder._

The man's impressed expression faded away soon.

 _"Good question. Should've expected, Overwatch won't allow fools among their ranks."_

An ember of pride glowed within Elani, until she remembered people would stop looking up to her all too soon.

 _Ah well, I can't stand attention anyway._

 _"Our enemies this day are purely ground troops, according to intelligence._

 _Fast on road, but the forests around will slow them strongly. Only one route they can take and hope to succeed before reinforcements arrive."_

His features twisted into an almost wicked grin.

 _"They don't know we have Overwatch support, they'll attack us expecting an easy victory."_

Only now Elani realized the high hopes their allies had for them.

 _"Where will you be? What will you do?"_

 _Meet and surpass your expectations._ , Elani thought with a smirk of her own.

 _"I'll be wherever the fight is the thickest."_

 _Going out with a bang, hopefully._

The soldier nodded affirmatively.

* * *

Now cowering in the mud, behind a collaped column, the rain still drizzling over them and making ground and equipment perilously slippy, most of her confidence had left Elani.

Her emotions had caught up at the worst possible moment, the thought of foes charging at them guns blazing any minute now was positively terrifying.

 _The ground is too soft and squishy, I'll slip and fall all the time. Be too late to help, to make any difference._

She inspected her surroundings again, painfully aware of how thin their lines were, how dirty and flimsy the weapons of those close to her looked, how intimidatingly large the distance between the spread-out firing units was.

Eventually she succumbed to the urge that told her to huddle, and thus she curled into a ball, sitting in the dirt and rain and feeling sodden, cold and tainted, watching her own shaking hands, Virima dappled in dirt.

 _I can't help anyone like this._

The voice inside her head did little to calm her agitated state.

 _Let me help._

Another trembling passed through Elani, this one not a product of fear, and she clenched her jaw.

 _You won't ruin my last chance to do a good deed._

 _And what kind of deed would this be? You, stalking among corpses in the bloodied morass, four dying for every one you save until a stray bullet ends you as well?_

She had to choke down a whimper after those words.

 _Let me help._

 _You hide in fear from those pitiful Omnic foot soldiers?_

 _The two of us, we can show them a construct more perfect than any machine ever contrived._

Again Elani looked around and felt her resistance crumbling with every face she gazed upon, even more so as she imagined Lena searching the razed ranks for her.

At last her shoulders slumped and she sighed meekly.

 _I'd sooner throw myself into my own sword than let you harm a single hair on their heads through me, you know that?_

 _As I've said many times before, both of us value human lives._

 _Yeah, sure. I've seen just how much you do in the research facility._

 _The price of progress. Anyway, do you consent?_

 _If that's the only way? Yes. Do what you must._

 _Well then. Try to relax. And good luck._

With that the conversation ended, and a tingling sensation spread, starting in her toes.

Elani focussed on a small patch of grass that had not been torn open or trampled down.

As soon as the numbness reached her waist her breathing quickened and turned shallow.

Too soon for her taste the feeling reached her throat, crept upward like cold fingers.

Once they reached cheeks and she increasingly felt as if wrapped in cotton, the world around her turning small and bleak through the filter, as she felt her thoughts soften and melt, Elani prayed she would have the strength to resist Colony.

For a short, calming, almost peaceful moment her mind was a blank slate, all the scars and tension and longing gone while she hovered in a warm anf welcoming mist somewhere in a coniferous forest.

 _This must be what heaven feels like._

Then, without warning in any way, shape or form, Colony opened the floodgates and Elani was catapulted back into her surroundings, broke right through the fabric of reality, whatever laid behind it, and then some more.

She waguely felt her body fall to the side, heard the mud smack as it met her cheek and saw the splash.

Those perceptions where but three among a thousand thousand jittering bugs inside her head, coruscating in equally many colours.

The moment of clarity in the opera did not, in the most twisted sense of the word, come close to this.

She was drowning in an ocean of sensations, a torrent beyond anything a human mind should be able to grasp hitting her with the force of a wrecking ball.

She could not make a noise, not think, not breathe, only feel the pulse of her heart moving through every single bloodvessel in her body, feel its current brush against the inside of her veins, she could count even the last pinpoint water droplet, feel them drum against her skin, as impactful as a hail of punches.

Her horizon broadened again and again, each time her head felt as if it would burst with the sheer volume of information, her brain as if would explode any nanosecond as it croaked under the load.

The people were still preparing themselves, inspecting their weapons, the sound of metal grinding against metal by the dozen piercing her ears, as did the whispers, the ragged breaths, the shifting leather and cloth.

In one of the buildings, someone scribbled frantically on a piece of paper, the pencil produced a brutal screech.

In the lower floor of the house across, a soldier hummed the chorus of Seven Nation Army while scratching paint off a wooden window frame.

All of it and much more piled up, a life's share of sense forced into a single second, and if Elani had been able to produce even remotely coherent strings of thought, she would've deemed this task biologically impossible.

Yet she had to endure the onslaught, at the mercy of what normally would've been her five senses.

Another second passed, as much an eternity as the last one.

Everything blended into one, sounds gained colour and texture, the world a voice and scent jagged teeth while time lost its meaning.

Yet it must've passed on, for Elani got to her feet again, still in the eye of the typhoon enveloping her, somehow gaining a hold of the titanic riptide, grasping its current.

Aside from the ubiquitous turmoil there was a strange silence around her.

Acting on a sudden whim, Elani stepped onto the column that provided her cover and spread her arms as if to welcome the forces marching on them, as well as the sensual onslaught, savouring the calm before the storm.

She could hear all of them, hear their servos humming, their well-oiled joints moving relentlessly as they crossed the last distance in a final sprint, furtively crawling over the rubble like ants, not yet in line of sight.

Elani had her eyes closed anyway.

None could hope to evade her notice.

Acting on pure instinct, she reformed her body armor and drew a longsword out of her neckline as the first projectiles of the battle whizzed around her.

If not all of her mental capacities had been used up, she would've laughed maniacally.

 _The plate would only slow me down._

Her own inner voice had a strange, unfamiliar lilt.

Which mattered little, since she now knew exactly what to do.

Something small and tubular whistled through the air, and Elani bolted off even before the grenade's explosion ripped through the air and knocked her comrades off their feet.

Her next memories turned into a hazy blur, but she never would've been able to remember the sheer volume of perceptional input anyway.

The weather no longer proved to be an obstacle, nor did the rubble.

Elani seemed to fly over the battlefield while her allies were stuck in invisible goo, she recounted darting back and forth among their lines, bringing soldiers to their feet again the second they were hit, she herself shrugging off grazing shots and shrapnel as if her skin was titanium.

Wherever the Omnic threatened to break their ranks, exploit weaknesses or flank unsuspecting troops, the battle playing out once around her and once more in her mind, Elani noticed at once and halted the advance.

Dispensing medical aid faster than they could hope to dispense bullets and jumping into the breech herself if need be, she dodged the projectiles, deflected with her sword the few times their muzzles could keep up with her movement, flowed among their numbers like a gentle breeze, except with claws that wreaked havoc.

Her senses did not dull, if anything they increased further, all too soon her nerve fibers were smouldering like red-hot piano wires in her boiling flesh, her spine like molten metal.

Yet swifter and faster she moved, her body soon burning up and aching like an engine running at a speed far above acceptable limits.

As time passed and her muscles seemed to melt, yet diligently did their job, Elani turned reckless, advancing past their line of defense more and more often, striking with growing force against the unfaltering rows of machines.

Some time later she darted around the ruin of a house, only one wall left standing and as many Omnics.

The last one, however, was armed with a rocket launcher and chose to fire its missile as it became apparent there was no escape.

There was no dodging the explosion, not at this range.

Elani felt the heat of the close blast first, it was no match for the wildfire soaring within her.

The light, though, enveloped her, brighter than the sun, brighter than everything.

As she waa tossed around by the shockwave, the light gained almost corporal qualities as it wrapped around her, became cool and soothing, soft and silky smooth, like an otherwordly bed, and brought peace and blissful respite at last.

* * *

Someone nudged her, but Elani chose to ignore it and hovered in the pleasant distance instead, far away from the surface that only promised pain and despair.

A peculiar scent eventually managed to pierce the gentle shell around her, as well as the sound of a blade cutting through cloth.

She stirred, feeling more exhausted the closer she approached reality again, loathe to leave the heavenly tranquility.

Golden sunlight warmed her face and almost made the brown shock of hair glow.

Her body chose to spite the beautiful view by coughing up dust and whatnot.

Something kept tugging at her sleeve.

 _"Elani? Don't move."_

Elani disobeyed the person at once and grimaced at her muscles' raucous complaints as she sat herself up.

Lena pushed her down again with ease.

 _"Don't move I said! Darling, by the looks of your clothing you've hiked through a circle of hell or two. Caked in blood, ripped to shreds and burned in some spots. Only the sulphur is missing."_

 _"Not mine..."_ , Elani mumbled in response, tempted to sink back into sleep but rudely interrupted as Lena gave her a good shake.

 _"Just stay with me."_ , her pressed voice sounded as she kept cutting away her sleeve and inspecting the arm underneath for wounds.

Faint anger flared in Elani and she straightened once again, maybe a little too quickly.

 _"I'm fine. Seriously."_ , she said, now with an almost perfectly firm voice while she closed her eyes and waited for the world to stop spinning.

A startling touch on her cheeks caused an entirely different emotion to flare as Lena turned her head left and right and brushed the grime off her neck.

 _"Love, I've asked the soldiers."_

The ensuing giggle caught her by surprise.

 _"You know what they call you? Russian Banshee."_

Now that Elani had a closer look, she was indeed in quite a disheveled state.

 _"Why's that? And stop this nonsense!"_

Not heeding her command and easily overpowering her sore muscles, Tracer removed her jacket.

 _"Wherever you appear, death follows. Or at least one in six. The other five times you work miracles, apparently._

 _And according to the troops you've caught half the bullets fired at them yourself."_

She motioned to continue, but Elani crawled away as fast as she could.

 _"Hey, that's enough undressing!"_ , she snapped and blushed as a thankfully relatively small part of her claimed the opposite.

Tracer showed her palms excusingly yet at the same time sported an impish grin and winked at her.

 _"Still haven't bought me that drink."_

Elani's flush deepened several shades of red while the other woman reverted to a more serious countenance.

 _"Anyway. I saw you dashing across the battlefield like the living devil the few times I had a gander at you from the sky._

 _Not that I'm complaining, there've been far less casualties than expected."_

Tracer sauntered over to Elani, who was now with her back to a particularly large chunk of rubble, and seated herself right next to her on the ground.

 _"Just what the hell happened, if you don't mind telling me?"_

The closeness assaulted her mental barriers as always, but that issue was quickly forced into the distant background as Elani became more aware of the sunset.

Tracer mirrored her frown, but could not hope to reproduce the gaping hole that now opened in her mind.

 _It is time._

Elani closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, felt the sunrays caressing her cheeks in the cold air and wondered how a sight so beautiful could herald such a feeling of despair.

 _"Wish I could turn back time."_ , she heard her own voice, now hollowed out.

Tracer nodded knowingly.

 _"No surprise, after what you've been through."_

She proceded by laying a hand on her shoulder, the touch, though not entirely on its own, causing goosebumps on Elani's skin.

 _"I can't help but feel like we've been neglecting your mental state._

 _Nobody would ever be able to live through what you've experienced without changing."_

The following warm smile was almost heartbreaking.

 _"If you wanna talk about anything, no matter what, I'm always there for you. You're one of us."_

Elani had never felt so utterly helpless in her life before.

She wished she could imprint this scene into her memory for all eternity, the orange-glowing sky, Lena's smile.

She desperately wished her willpower would falter, just for a moment, so that she could close the distance, could succumb to her feelings, kiss her just once more and forget all the troubles plaguing her right now.

But nothing happened, the torturing force of reason inside her was strong and stalwart as ever.

Elani turned around instead, unable to face those she had betrayed, though the woman's hand never left her shoulder.

She just that there, her head resting on her knees and her arms wrapped around her tucked-up legs, waiting for something to occur, even if it was Colony taking control over her body and stopping what would come next.

No such thing happened, though, and after a few moments she had gathered enough strength to do the necessary.

 _"Colony has invaded my mind."_

The hand slowly retracted and Elani desperately wanted the ground beneath her to simply gulp her down and carry her to some deep, dark, far-away cavern.

Once a few moments of silence had passed, she had a look at the puzzlement writ large in Lena's face, mingling with disbelief.

The usually chirpy woman blinked at Elani, random pieces of debris, then at her grim visage again.

 _"Wha...how can you be sure?"_

 _"I hear his voice inside my head, feel how I fight over the control of my own body. And I'm on the losing side it seems."_ , Elani delivered blandly.

 _"That doesn't prove anything! Might as well be your psyche playing tricks, you trying to cope with what happened."_

Elani could tell she wanted to reassure herself as well as her.

 _"It's the truth."_ , she finished and all further words Lena spoke were drowned out by the steadily surging hum in her ears.

As all further communication attempts proved futile, her counterpart dragged her to her feet and then away from the collapsed house, away from the sun that had now almost disappeared behind the horizon.

Elani now feeling as lifeless as a zombie and accordingly cumbersome and sluggish, their progress was slow, but an indefinable time later they reached McCree, busy wiping dirt off a huge, familiar piece of weaponry, and some scraps of conversation managed to wiggle through the shell surrounding her, echoing strangely.

 _"...if not for Zarya turning up...time to pay visit..."_

 _"...more urgent matters."_

Her surroundings lost focus and melted like wax figurines in an oven, the colours in the puddles shifting and mixing as if a painter was at work, trying himself at creation, yet the vibrant blots soon faded to gray.

As shapes rose from the blear puddle, Elani felt like being in the bunker again, her surroundings reduced to shades of white and black, however the environment looked awfully similar to the hypertrain that brought them to Siberia in the first place.

Feeling as gray inside as the outer world, Elani did not move a muscle and kept looking outside, even though she couldn't care less about anything that zoomed by outside.

Own pulse throbbing in her head, mind and body feeling strained and frail, the constant tingling around her spine eventually made Elani twitch, the first visible movement elicited a gasp and only then she took note of Lena, seated right across from her.

 _"Elani? Can you hear me?"_ , she asked meekly.

Elani blinked and moved her chin in the barest minimum of a nod, which made the one opposite from her a little less sulky.

 _"Thank God._

 _You've been unresponsive for the last few hours. I've started to fear the worst."_ , she said while pouting her lips and rummaging through a backpack, continuing after producing something blocky and wrapped in foil,as well as bottled water.

 _"Here. You need to eat something, love."_

The plastic packaging screeched faintly in Elani's ears as Tracer pushed the two objects over the table between them, but Elani made no motion to take the nourishment, only stared instead.

 _"Please."_

The urging voice convinced her at last.

The protein bar proved just as tasteless as the clear water as she chewed it mechanically and shifted back to her original position and activity once the necessity was taken care of.

The painter tried his luck again, this time making generous use of a single, vivid colour.

Something stirred in her as Elani watched the fluid spread like tendrils on the floor and drip down the window.

Next she knew someone with a familiar-looking face was shaking her by the shoulders.

 _"Darn, stop acting up, lady!"_

Elani halted her thrashing at once and the man let himself sink back into the cushioning, though he did not stop glaring at her warily.

 _"We might want to put shackle her."_ , he suggested after a moment of thought.

The fear in Lena's face was replaced by anger in a split-second.

 _"Blast, are you nuts? Elani's not just some animal we chain up! She's our friend, and one of us!"_

The almost caustic sharpness in her voice actually made McCree flinch back and subdued his response.

 _"We can't be so sure about that anymore."_ , he said while frowning.

 _"I'll hear no more of it. We just gotta hold on, Winston's a genius._

 _He will figure something out once we're back home, in Gibraltar."_

 _Is it still my home after all, though?_

The verbal conversation came to an end after that, but Elani noticed Lena silently repeating some of her words while fixing her gaze on her with grim determination.

 _He'll figure something out. He must._

* * *

 **Quite a short chapter, this, at least compared to the last one.**

 **I hope you don't mind me cramming a little bit of drama in there.**


	9. Progress

_"So, since when did you know?"_

The two women sat infront of the arrangement of screens, on the large rubber tire that had replaced the chair, and watched the progress bar crawl forward as the computer processed the next batch of scans.

Lena had never left Elani's side for long once they stepped out of the train.

She could not say whether this was due to caution or apprehension, though the worry showing in her expression proposed the latter.

Elani did not muster the effort to shrug.

 _"Since stepping into that bunker, where I first heard him inside my head."_

Her voice still had a pale ring to it.

In the corner of her altered eye, she could see Lena shake her head, half-whispered words followed.

"The bloody bunker. I should've suspected something, it all went far too smooth."

Elani did not dare to meet her gaze.

 _"Just why have you waited so long to tell us, love? What if it's too late by now?"_

 _"I couldn't."_

 _"Why? What could possibly be more important than your own life, your own free will?"_

The faintest trace of a smile made Elani's lips twitch involuntarily.

 _Because I liked living a dream, until the bitter end._

On the heels of the spike of sentiment dogged a cold and slimy feeling, and she felt a second presence stir within her mind.

 _You really do long for her._

 _Get out there, that's private._

 _Why do you torture yourself, never even try to follow the temptation?_

Elani pretended to look at a delicate-looking contraption to hide the fury twisting her countenance as the insisting voice continued.

 _All your life, your iron will has worked flawlessly according to rationality, always sharing a common goal._

 _You know how the human body works, how all the tiny neurons go about their business._

 _You studied biology, thought you had it all figured out at last._

 _But you missed something, some part of your brain hidden until now that simply won't follow the rules you've laid down._

The nails of her hand, languidly raised to support her head, now scraped against her face as the fingers tensed.

 _Shut up, and stop digging through my memories._

 _You wanted someone to show you the way out of this limbo. Here I am._

 _Stop it._

 _Do you really want to live like this, the tantalizing dream always close, yet never reached?_

 _It's unreasonable._

 _What could be more reasonable than happiness?_

Now her jaw tensed as well, and the headache returned.

 _It's simply impossible._

 _All of this started with the impossible anyway, why shouldn't it end in the same manner? So go right ahead._

Elani could feel her mental barriers sway and soften as the buzzing sound gained in volume.

A hissing sound passed through as well and alerted Lena.

 _"Something wrong, my dear?"_

Despite her best intentions she turned to face the other woman and saw her furrowing her brow in response.

 _"It's him, isn't it?"_

Instead of confirming her thesis Elani got to her unsteady feet and backed off, wrestling over the command of her body, flickering back and forth between a dreamy, relaxed state and dubious self-control.

To her vexation, Lena closed the distance again at a second's notice and came closer still.

 _"I won't leave you at the scumbag's mercy."_

Her nearness, alluring as ever, almost convinced Elani to lean forward, but she did the opposite instead, the desk digging into her backside.

 _"Back off!"_ , she snarled, maybe a bit more brusquely than intended.

 _"Leave her be at once!"_ , Lena shouted back instead.

Elani stared at her for a few moments, each breath whistling through her clenched teeth - and relented at last.

 _"It's okay. Er, the thing is. I. Uh."_

Her counterpart relaxed as her own shoulders slumped down, the wary frown had not yet left her however.

Elani sorted her thoughts to prevent another piecemeal answer and took a deep breath, though all that did not prevent her face from curdling.

 _"I like you."_

Lena pushed back a stray strand of brown hair and smiled thinly.

 _"Why, I like you too! Would be hard not to after what we've been through together, darling."_

Elani grimaced and really wished she knew how to disappear in a puff of smoke.

 _"I mean..."_

She gesticulated without a proper plan and felt all the more like an awkward fool.

 _"...more."_

A shade of concern whizzed over Lena's face and went almost unnoticed as she rubbed the back of her neck, the thin smile restored.

 _"Colony's just messing with your head."_

She developed a sudden and keen interest in her shoes.

 _I've confessed one terrible truth already, now I may very well continue with the next one._

 _That's the spirit!_

 _Get out._

" _I mean, I really, really like you."_ , Elani said, then watched Lena chew on her lip and sigh once a few heartbeats had passed.

 _"I know."_ , she countered, grinning ruefully at the ensuing shock visible in Elani's face as she gasped a _"Wha...how?"_

A beep announced the end of the computer's analysis.

The green letters appearing on the screen made Elani freeze posthaste while Lena ignored the audio cue and kept on talking unabashedly.

 _"You told me, back in the opera, when I was carrying you to the medics._

 _And for starters, simple friends usually don't smooch on balconies."_

Elani barely felt her cheeks turn hot as her world was reduced to three distinct objects:

Lena, herself, and the result presented on the screen.

One of the three now giggled.

 _"And the way you eye me sometimes...even a blind man could see that!"_

Elani got a firm hold on the desk to prevent herself from toppling over as vertigo made her head spin.

Meanwhile she mumbled the words displayed.

Unperturbed by low utterings, the other person in the room kept on chattering.

 _"And I'm sorry. I'll never forget how you saved me back then, and I still believe I owe you..."_

She sighed as a hint of ruefulness appeared, and Elani could not decide whether her words or the message on the screen were more important.

 _"...but seeing you almost die a few times was painful enough even without allowing myself to get any closer to you._

 _I really hope this doesn't hit you too hard."_

Since she still stood with her back to the delicate news, Elani chose to read the succinct line aloud at last.

 _"No external influence detected."_

Lena spun around and shrugged.

 _"Same as before. The bugger's elusive, as we've learned the hard way."_

 _"The first few results were crude calculations, this one used maximum precision when analyzing, from neuronal networks to the subcellular level._

 _Even the haziest trail of tampering..."_

Elani rubbed her brow as the growing self-doubt made her head throb.

 _"It couldn't possibly...the blot in my vision, on the map...the other voice inside me...the twitching..."_

All other incredulous words and gnawing quizzical thoughts were obliterated and ground into a fine, soft dust as Lena hugged her.

 _"Who cares, as long as you are safe and sound?"_

The tiny part of her brain currently not occupied with noticing strands of hair tickling on her cheek or the faintest trace of conifer resin tingling pleasantly in her lungs took note how Lena's clarifying talk had not changed things in the slightest.

Her knees turned to jelly, and she could feel the ensuing chuckle through the close contact as much as hear it.

 _"Really that bad, lo- er, Elani?"_

They separated again, to her current mindset's disappointment.

 _"Sorry about that, didn't want to mess with you."_

Elani enjoyed her counterpart's radiant grin for a little longer and whispered a dreamy "Nevermind" in response until she got a hold of herself again and rapture was replaced with regret.

 _"A lie, all of it?_

 _Gosh, and you've missed your chance to see this Zarya, just because of some daft phantasm..._

 _Look, I overreacted, I'm very, very..."_

Lena stopped any further rambling with a brisk gesture.

 _"Shush now! It doesn't matter, as long as you're well._

 _Which is not quite true, as I've feared._

 _Darling, move down a notch for a few days._

 _Relax, and take care of yourself."_

She smirked as a dab against the mark on Elani's neck caused a shudder.

 _"Some events leave more than physical scars behind._

 _Dealing with those nasty experiences, like talking about them, is crucial, and I'll always lend you my ear if you want me to. Do you understand?"_

 _"I suppose. Yeah."_

Tracer nodded in appreciation.

 _"Well then, I got some business down in the city. Promise you'll take it easy and not do anything reckless, at least for a time?"_

Elani parted her lips, but before any words escaped them, her companion had already disappeared and left her in silence.

Somehow she felt like the conversation was unfinished, that she should've said something earlier, the fact she didn't know what exactly made it bug her all the more.

The letters on the screen still stood tall and strong and turned her mind towards the matter at hand.

 _Hello? Anybody there?_ ,

Elani warily probed her mental landscape.

The emptiness gaping back was, to her surprise, almost uncomfortable.

On a second thought, the Colony within her cerebral folds never had been a disadvantage, rather the opposite.

A burning sensation spread through her body once more as she tried to remember what happened on the frontline in detail.

Strangely enough the sensual overload had left precious little to recall, and memories she could find appeared foggy and twisted.

Sans task herself for now, Elani chose the opportunity to give the scan material a closer inspection and study whatever measurable changes the real, indisputable Colony had caused, with mixed results.

The material itself was impeccable, yet more often than not she caught herself losing focus as the recent talk elbowed itself to the front row of her mind over and over again.

 _So, Lena won't further the relationship because she fears for my life._

She accepted the notion of there being a plausible chance so incredibly quickly that some part of her could only judge herself to be insane.

That didn't stop Elani from scheming how to circumvent the obstacle now laid open.

Even saying the names of every cell organelle she recognized aloud could not stop her mind from wandering off.

Yet Elani was not too vexed as she deemed all further efforts to decipher her own architecture futile at the current time, for she felt the force teeming behind the newfound impetus now growing within her.

She even smiled as she left the set of displays behind with long and firm strides and moved down the flight of stairs, taking two steps at a time.

 _Knowing exactly what to do certainly feels nice._

* * *

 _"Don't blame yourself."_

Elani made full use of the brief rest period by wiping the transpirative sheen off her skin with a towel, replenishing water with a gulp of isotonic drink, and glaring at McCree, who was still miles away from so much as breaking a sweat, with mild ire.

 _"Overwatch-business can be hard on your psyche, especially for newcomers like you._

 _Your first missions not exactly being walks in the park add to that as well."_

She let her pout remain the only answer and nodded towards the sparring area.

The proficient Overwatch member still dodged her onslaught with infuriating swiftness, yet she could not help but notice a progress in her movements.

The pleasant knowledge grew into a fierce grin as her opponent confirmed the observation.

 _"You've gotten faster."_ , McCree noted calmly.

 _"Not all of it was lies."_ , she huffed back between the jabs.

 _"Have you seen me during the Omnic assault?"_

The fact that he managed to light a cigar with relative ease added a tad of extra force to her efforts.

 _"I remember someone chasing over the battlefield like a dervish, but their armored units kept me busy._

 _Keep your feet apart a little further."_

The pattern continued until Elani had to prop her hands on her knees and regain her breath.

 _"You think maybe Lena could train me as well?"_ , she wheezed.

The moment her view left the ground again, she saw how he seemed to search something in her face, how his eyes squinted just a tiny bit, his expression turning bland again once he raised his voice.

 _"Ain't saying Tracer couldn't teach you a trick or two, but her overall fighting style is too different. I guess you haven't learned to teleport as well over night."_

Elani stretched her aching arms and shoulders before straightening up again.

 _"How about we move to full power? To simulate a proper combat situation for a change?"_

Watching the usually stern McCree giggle out of a sudden certainly felt odd.

 _"Lady, I admit you're pretty hard to kill._

 _That doesn't mean you should chance it."_

Her fierce grin returned once again.

 _"As you said, I'm tough. Try me."_

 _"If you absolutely want to. It's your body."_ , he shrugged.

And attacked without further ado.

Out of empty space a gentle tact appeared, almost a song, furtive but palpable, like a heavy drum, bringing Elani clarity of mind and allowing her to match the desperado's speed and strength, blow by blow, blocking some and evading the others.

Then the stream ruptured and she found herself on the floor, convulsing and gasping for air as a deep and churning pain errupted in her side.

 _"Cruel."_ , she managed to force through her clenched teeth.

 _"Any well-trained enemy would attack the very same spot. Only the fools fight with honor."_

He dragged her up from the ground.

 _"Why not learn some theory? Or pay the shooting range a visit? Hand-to-hand combat should be a last resort anyway."_

 _"You know why."_ , Elani responded, on her legs again though hunched over and still clutching her side.

His straight stare halted her squirming for a short time.

 _"Not risking to kill is a perfectly valid choice, but being a good shot can only make it easier."_

Elani chose to ignore the pain shouting at her to follow his suggestions.

 _I need to learn how to focus like that on command, evoke the clarity I've experienced in Siberia without any self-spun specters._

 _It's imperative._

 _"Again."_

After another dozen of defeats, Elani was on the padded floor again, resisting the urge to close her eyes and drift off to sweet nothingness.

Each shallow breath drove red-hot lances through her chest, standing on her own two feet again only made it worse. Still she entered the fighting stance.

 _"Again? Hell, you can barely stand._

 _I don't need to be a trained physician to tell you training like this can't be healthy and meaningful."_

 _"Just give me a minute."_

After said time had passed McCree caught her as she threatened to keel over on her own and guided her to a bench.

 _"I think I may have a broken rib."_

She screwed up her face as a new wave of pain arrived and drove tears into her eyes.

 _"Or maybe two."_

Cowering down in her seated position while McCree fetched a particularly helpful healing glove, a cough brought the taste of blood and soured her countenance even further.

 _"And possibly a ever so slightly perforated lung."_

According to his expression while regarding the hologram, McCree came to the same dire conclusion and shook his head in result.

 _"Just what the blazes keeps you going?"_

Again he squinted his eyes at her and a shade of cunning passed over his face.

 _"What if Tracer knew how you torture yourself?"_

Elani would've liked to believe her body betrayed none of her thought processes, but she was too busy setting a bone or two.

 _"It has been about her all along, hasn't it?"_ , he concluded solemnly.

She sighed as the self-administered treatment brought heavenly relief at last and slumped against the pleasantly cool wall, promising herself to lay down for a few hours soon.

 _"How did you know?"_

 _"Knowing the motivations of friend and foe has always been part of my job. Sorry."_

She didn't have to see him to know he meant it.

 _"By the way, I'll leave in a week or so. See if my old connections gain us a few more allies or manage to track down the other Overwatch members."_ , he said after a period of silence only broken by her slow and deep breathing.

 _"You still wanna continue?"_

 _"No. I've had enough major organ damage for a single day."_ , she turned down with a smirk.

 _"Tomorrow, then."_

 _"Aye, tomorrow."_

* * *

The bang echoed within her ears, gaining in volume and aggressiveness and sparking a kind of anxiety anchored firmly in some murky depth of her mind.

The air thickened, became uncomfortably warm and choking.

The walls seemed to close in and darken, transforming into a different place, from a different time...

Elani did her best to concentrate on keeping her breathing deep and steady as she waited for the effects to pass.

Once the sense of pressure had left her chest, she took aim again and fired the next shot.

And the next. And the one after that.

She paused before utilizing what she assumed to be the last round, admiring how the force of the déjà-vu had dwindled with successive pull of the trigger with a feeling of pride.

 _Only one fear left to tick off the list._

Elani took extra care in making sure the last bullet in the clip would hit the bullseye.

Perfect clarity came to her hesitantly, flickering unsteadily after a moment of intense focus.

A distant rustling of soles on concrete, stopping abruptly, made knit her brows.

The sudden tickling sensation in her sides, on the other hand, made her loose the projectile prematurely.

She could not decide between wearing a grin or a frown as she removed the magazine, checked the ejection port, dry-fired and finally flicked the safety active, following the exact procedure McCree had taught her.

Once she had removed the ear protection and turned to face the culprit, Elani decided on mirroring her opposite's grin.

 _"Some good aiming there!"_ , the other woman said while glancing at the target.

 _"I have barely seen you the last couple days._

 _Feeling well enough I hope? No longer hearing strange voices?"_ , she added with a teasing grin and earned herself a nudge.

Something in the way Lena fidgeted around led Elani to believe she had received good news of some kind, the visible excitement carrying over to her as well in an instant.

 _"Anything important you might share with me?"_ , she could not stop herself from asking while letting the target traverse the distance with the press of a button, half-mindedly wondering why this feature in particular had not yet been replaced by more modern means.

The silence made her search her conversation partner's face and see a shadow of doubt and concern, though evaporating swiftly and replaced by a grin stretching from from ear to ear.

 _"Winston informed me just a minute ago._

 _It's about the Slipstream."_

 _"Well then. Shoot."_ , Elani said and hastily followed up with _"Not literally."_ as she became aware of her current position in relation to the target.

 _"Our sensors picked up its beacon and were able to localize the signal._

 _From what we can tell the beauty is in the Caribbean Watchpoint, right now!"_

Elani contemplated trying her luck with a field strip, but returned the pistol to the on-site weapon cabinet instead.

 _"When will be going, then?"_

The pause told her that the shadow had returned.

 _"I really don't think you should come with me."_

 _"So you believe I'd be nothing but a dead weight once again? I'm getting better with each passing day."_

 _"I don't doubt you are trying your hardest."_ , Lena said with a tortured-looking expression.

 _"It's just your bad luck, you almost getting yourself killed on every mission._

 _The Watchpoint's sensors have picked up weird spectral emissions, and I really don't want to take any chances."_

 _"We'll be careful then. Don't you want someone to watch your back?"_

 _"Look, darling, I understand you have feelings for me and they are getting the better of you._

 _Well, I have feelings too, and I really don't want to see you sprawled on the ground and bleeding out one more time in my life.."_

Elani straightened up to full height and crossed her arms over her chest.

 _"I'm part of Overwatch now, you've said so yourself._

 _I have chosen to join on my own free will, fully aware of the dangers._

 _If we truly are a team, I should assist you without hearing any further objections."_

She knew her arguments had hit home by the way Lena's shoulders slumped down, seeing the concern coating her face however made it feel like a hollow victory.

 _"We'd have to fly, though."_ , she added, brightening up a little.

 _A challenge I can face_ ,

Elani thought, pushing away the doubts that grew in response to the spike of vertigo which had appeared in the instant Lena expended the final effort.

 _"I'm coming with you."_ , she declared firmly.

The other woman chewed on her lip, brows furrowed, and eventually heaved a sigh.

 _"You really are as stubborn as they come."_

Out of the blue, a far more palpable fear flashed over her face, vanishing as quickly as it disappeared, though it did not go unnoticed.

Elani spun around but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

 _"What's the matter, Lena?"_

 _"Ah, it's nothing."_ , though the wide-eyed way she kept staring at the target, riddled with holes, suggested anything but.

The only thing someone might've called remotely interesting on a particularly boring day was the shot grouping, four of the impacts formed an almost perfectly straight vertical line, leading upwards from the more accurate hits, the last in the line formed by Lena's earlier mischievous intervention.

 _"Can't be true."_ , she whispered almost inaudibly, slowly shaking her head by a tiny fraction.

* * *

 **We're coming closer to the grand finale of the story!**

 **It's gonna be...interesting. And wicked. Yeah, I really like that word.**

 **Anyhow, I won't spoil anything here! Nothing wrong with a little teasing, though :P**

 **Greetings, mampfer**


	10. Plus Ultra

First came the pulse, calmly travelling along the network and all its paths, ranging from soaring highways to delicate trails, yet running perfectly smooth and easy in all but one spot.

Next followed the regular pattern of expansion and contraction, air slowly passing through larynx and trachea, pooling the countless alveoli for a few seconds before being released again.

Muscle and bone shifted around effortlessly, only the tissue around her kidney a tiny bit less soft.

Elani expanded her perception further, sensing the engines' vibrations through the metal beneath her, the air subtly shifting around in the empty storage space in which she now sat, eyes closed and legs crossed.

She continued to open her senses to the world all around, gritting her teeth as she noticed how a gale pushed against the aircraft's outer skin and tillted the frame ever so slightly.

Something within her recoiled, tensed her muscles and annihilated her concentration.

And easy as that, Elani was transported back to common reality, her surroundings appearing strangely pale and vapid until a little precicely directed focus made the colours almost painful to watch in one half of her vision.

Deciding she had spent enough time meditating on the cold floor, Elani summoned her trusty sword and went through a training series still perfectly present in her muscle memory, appreciating the flawless footwork and seemless transitions between the different stances and cuts.

 _Don't bring a sword to a gunfight, he said..._

A final thrust and the accompanying smirk showed what she thought about that statement.

The plane's large size and weight fortunately meant any change in course took some time and was barely noticeable, in combination with the vertical takeoff this meant Elani couldn't have wished for a more pleasant flight experience.

Still very much aware of her impairment however, she kept her eyesight firmly fixed on the layer of clouds above as she approached the cockpit, swivelled the second chair by a half-turn and seated herself, looking into the direction from where she came and not at all feeling obliged to make use of the glass canopy's impressive visibility.

 _"Well, hallo there darling! Not at all green around the gills, gotta say I'm surprised."_

Elani slowly shifted her field of view and adjusted the seat's angle until nothing beyond the pilot's tip of the nose was visible.

 _"Oh, as long as you don't turn this tub into a rollercoaster I'll be fine."_

Whatever Tracer thought about her taking part in this mission remained hidden beneath surface, the only thing writ in her face was the general joy that came to her whenever taking control of something fast and far above the ground, a happiness which glowed warmly in Elani as well as soon as she saw it.

After enjoying the feeling for a time in silence, she raised her voice.

 _"A pale shadow compared to that marvel you got your hands on in Russia, eh?"_

 _"You wouldn't believe how huge the difference is."_

Tracer's face gained a dreamlike quality while she was visibly revelling in the memory.

 _"It just was mindboggingly agile and responsive, could turn on a dime and float like a butterfly._

 _And sting like a bee as well, I had no problem keeping those Omnics from flanking you and dodged everything they fired at me with ease."_

Elani let her reminisce a little longer before asking the next question, intent on treading as careful as possible.

 _"How exactly did the Slipstream feel, then? You even called it every pilot's dream once."_

From the way Lena's visage twisted, Elani could tell she was pondering some complicated thoughts, and the response arrived after what was quite a long time by her standards.

 _"It's really hard to explain...I suppose it was the way it reacted._

 _Slipstream's controls were so incredibly direct, so...simple._

 _Like...I don't know, a pen, maybe._

 _Just a tool, to create something far greater in the hands of a skilled person, like...a novel, or a drawing."_

The ensuing giggle seemed distinctly out of place after the zealous-laden words.

 _"Sorry, that must've sounded horribly silly to you."_

Elani was quick to alleviate.

 _"Not at all. Please, continue."_

 _"Didn't have much time to get to know the beauty until, well...you know what happened._

 _Right before the disaster, for the first and only time it felt as if the limiting factor was not the machine, but rather I._

 _It was just...strange."_

Elani had been keenly monitoring Lena's posture, expression and voice and come to the conclusion it was safe enough to pose the next question.

 _"What exactly happened to you after the...malfunction, if you don't mind me asking."_

The way her face turned sour and wan made Elani regret regret the decision at once and contemplate reaching out for her.

 _"Look, I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me."_

 _"Nah, it's okay."_ , she said while smiling thinly at her.

 _"You've saved me from living through it a second time, I guess you deserve to know."_

Elani waited patiently as Lena audibly took a breath and steadied herself again.

 _"There was this electric crackling and a deep boom, next everything around me was just gone._

 _I think I was falling at the beginning, before I could see the world again, only was it twisted like some feverish dream, the colours all wrong, the sounds distorted...the shapes straightened out at some point, not the time, though._

 _It was completely warped, some centuries passed by in the blink of an eye while a handful of seconds got stretched into eternity, mostly chopped into random pieces without any causal chain whatsoever in sight."_

Something beeped, but both woman chose to ignore the sound.

 _"You wouldn't believe what living in a world without sensible logic or any kind of interaction does to you...I felt like going insane, and I guess I really did, for a time._

 _The last thing I remember is begging whatever wicked kind of God had created that purgatorial dimension to end it, no matter how."_

Silence enveloped them in their mutual frown, until Lena let out a yelp and gave Elani quite the shock.

 _"Blast! I've missed our landing vector by a country mile!"_

Elani's stomache did a flip as the aircraft moved downwards in a corkscrew motion, which did little to calm her already pounding heart, and she did not open her eyes or stop digging her fingers into the armrest until she felt their transport come to a halt.

Cautiously she opened her discoloured eye at Tracer's exclamation.

 _"Who the heck is that guy?"_

They were on a concrete landing strip, its surface cracked and sparsely populated by scrubby plants, the fringe of the man-made rock on the other hand was besieged by lush green.

Elani might've found a prime example of advancing biological succession here had the scene further ahead of them occupied her attention.

The strip led to a set of huge doors, inserted into an equally large, round building, presumably a hangar.

What piqued their interest, however, was the human shape laying in what appeared to be a beach chair, right infront of the closed entrance of the complex.

 _"Is this island perchance a tourist destination?"_

 _"There's nothing but the Watchpoint on this spot of land."_ , said a Tracer who looked just as confused as Elani felt.

The reclined shape remained motionless.

 _"What did you say about those weird spectral emissions?"_

She wordlessly pointed at a tablet computer while continuing to gape at the peculiar person.

Elani promptly switched it on and found herself facing a chart depicting a graph, peaking quickly, then gently dropping towards the x-axis.

She mumbled the first words that came into her mind.

 _"Looks almost like blackbody radiation."_

 _"That's exactly what Winston said. Never knew you were an expert in physics as well."_ , Tracer joked while busying herself with the instrument panel.

 _"Oh, I'm a fan of all natural sciences, but they made me pick one."_

With apt caution they approached the sunbather and stopped at a healthy distance, Tracer keeping her two pistols close at hand and Elani ready to turn her plate of body armor into the proven blade at a nanosecond's notice.

At last the unfamiliar individual bestirred itself, yawned, sat upright on the deckchair and lastly removed its glassesses, overall acting with an almost unnatural air of relaxation.

It turned out to be a tall and brawny fellow of middle age, the brutish look only amplified by the close-cropped black hair and the rough face, covered in thin, irregular burn marks.

 _"How can I help you two beauties on this bright and sunny day?"_ , he greeted them suspiciously cheerfully and spread his arms as if to welcome them to his home.

 _"What the heck are you doing here?"_ , Tracer demanded to know with a noticeable sharpness in her voice whil Elani inspected a spot of uneven metal on the thick hangar doors that looked as if it had been molten and then cooled off again.

 _"Please. No reason to get all grumpy. May I suggest a cool drink instead?"_

Without further ado he seemed to pull a Martini glass out of thin air, filled with swirling clouds of dark-blue shades.

 _"The Arktikan! One of my favourites, only sold on its nuclear namesake."_

The two temporarily stupefied women kept staring as he summoned a tall glass with equal easiness, this one filled with a red-and-orange mixture.

 _"Or maybe a Californian Bloodmoon if you prefer it spicy."_

Slowly, Tracer reached for one of her pistols but kept the barrel pointing towards the ground for the time being.

 _"Who are you, and what's your business on this deserted island?"_

The man, completely unabashed by the weapon, let the Arktikan slosh around for a few seconds and took a sip before answering, as perfectly calm as before.

 _"So you wanna know my story. Why, how very considerate."_

He placed the two cocktails on the concrete floor and leaned back, hands hidden behind the back of his head.

 _"Let's just call me Dave for now._

 _Okay, I'll give you the short version._

 _I've always liked challenges, so when those people turned up one day and asked me to do a very risky test flight for them in a highly experimental plane, well, I accepted at once. Naturally the generous payment made the choice even easier._

 _Didn't listen to the eggheads too much, but understood it was about teleporting, and a second attempt."_

Tracer had stopped warily inspecting their surroundings the moment so-called Dave mentioned the plane.

 _"All they knew was I'd turn up somewhere, most likely within the moon's radius._

 _If I landed somewhere in the planet, that would've been the death of me._

 _Well, though. I've never been a scholar, but I know space is bloody empty for the most part._

 _And so I sat there, strapped into the seat, waiting._

 _The longer the wait, the further the teleporting distance, they told be in the briefing._

 _And they set up a nice big counter, just for me._

 _And it would not stop counting._

 _Wondered if I would be the first human on jupiter._

 _444 seconds, that's what it showed when I disappeared."_

Dave paused briefly and reached for the red drink, staring at the liquid as if something was hidden within its depths.

Once he raised his voice again, it was filled with barely contained awe, mixed with admiration and possibly a tiny pinch of insanity.

 _"You think the sun is bright and warm on a hot and steamy summer day like this one."_

He bobbed his head, sporting an alarmingly broad grin

 _"You don't know a thing."_

While letting that phrase sink for a moment, Elani unconsciously took a step back.

 _"So there I was, facing nothing but a great ball of fire and heat larger than anything the human mind can hope to fully comprehend._

 _Guess what? The scientists tried to account for everything, made the cursed plane heat resistant._

 _And guess what? The windshield coating evaporated after precious few minutes, same as the one on my helmet_

 _At least the recall worked properly, got me right back to the starting point._

 _Turns out feeling your skin melt off your flesh gives ya quite some motivation. I made it back._

 _And here's the icing on the cake."_

To emphasize he took another sip of the Arktikan.

 _"404 seconds._

 _Faster than the common laws of physics would allow, so I'm told."_

No one spoke a word for a generous amount of time and dozens of questions started to hum around in Elani's head.

Tracer, in the meantime, moved towards a keypad situated in the immediate proximity of Dave.

In an instant the man was on his feet, carelessly knocking over the two glasses and spilling their contents.

 _"Sorry ladies, I can't let you go inside."_

By now her pistol no longer pointed at the ground.

 _"So you're with Talon. I knew it from the start."_

 _"Bah! Talon's just an old hat. A stale fart. Pardon my French."_

Elani remained unsure how to react herself, though after glance at her companion's hard face she readied her sword.

 _"I trust you've met my Russian colleague? Yea high, kinda odd-looking fella?"_

Dave raised his hands apologetically when Tracer bared her teeth.

 _"Hey, I never liked the guy much myself. Smells strange."_

 _"We've already caught one of you maniacs, and you'll be next if you don't move aside right now."_ , she snarled back.

 _"Colony may be crazy, but not stupid. Always has a hidden agenda going on. As for me, I'm straighforward."_

Dave's visage twisted into a crooked smirk as absolute bafflement unfolded in Tracer's face as she stared at her empty palm, the pistol now somehow dangling in the man's grip after a swift turn of the wrist.

 _"There's no way you'll get past me._

 _Then again, I've always liked a good challenge."_

 _"Stay out of this, Elani.",_ she directed at the second woman in their team in a commanding tone before vanishing.

Then the Overwatch agent appeared again halfway there, her legs kicking the air as she was lifted up by a disembodied hand closed around her throat.

The very same body part of Dave was gone as well, the stump of his arm ending in a thin wafer of mist, sparkling in a multitude of colours, like a kaleidoscope.

Its owner was still grinning, his muscles visibly contracting from the effort.

 _"They told me all there is to know about you._

 _In a sense, I am your arch-enemy. Anchored in time, but not in space._

 _And I can reach any place in the universe."_

Elani's hand tensed around her sword's hilt as she torn between following the command and the overwhelming urge to help Lena.

With a grunt Dave released his grip and let Tracer tumble down, gasping for air.

 _"Sadly I'm still limited to small objects, but one day, I'll be practised enough to transport a whole human anywhere I fancy. That's when the real fun begins."_

Tracer launched herself again at the opponent, long before reaching him coming to an abrupt halt and bending over after catching a fist to the gut.

Elani's legs slowly moved forward on their own accord.

Again she attacked.

This time Tracer just stopped in mid-motion and paled, flickering yet frozen in place for a second or two before collapsing like puppet with its strings cut.

Elani howled some mindless phrase and charged forward at full force, only to see Dave's second hand disappear through the ominously iridescent mist.

She tripped over something and came down hard, lost her weapon and ended up on her back.

With the point of her own blade hovering right above her heart, a large hand, surrounded by nothing but thin air, grasping its hilt, ready to thrust down at any moment.

The breath caught in her throat while Dave laughed, sounding mildly maniacally in the process.

 _"Don't bite off more than you can chew! I'm way beyond you, hell, anyone! Just like the new Cycle!"_

The hand guiding her own blade against her vanished after Elani's heart had been pounding like crazy below its tip for a range of seconds.

Once the metal hat finished clattering on the concrete and she dared to breathe again, her next action consisted of hurrying to her mission partner's side.

Thankfully Tracer showed signs of life again, even though those were limited to squirming on the ground while wheezing and clutching her chest.

 _"No need to worry, only gave her heart a little squeeze."_ , Dave tried to reassure and failed completely to do so, once more chilling in his beach chair.

Tracer would not stay still while Elani scanned her chest and sat herself up instead.

 _"Jeez, that was quite the uncomfortable sensation."_ , she said, still sounding a little shaky, with one set of fingers slipped below her chronal accelerator and pressing against her sternum.

Elani gaped at her in utter disbelief as she approached the foe before hurring after her.

 _"To get things straight."_ , the man started, not even deigning to open his eyes, _"I could tear at your spinal cord, smash your brain, poke a hole into the ol' diligent heart or any other major blood vessel."_

 _"I absolutely have to get inside this Watchpoint._ _"_ was Tracer's solemn answer.

 _"You really don't give up easily now, do ya?"_

To Elani's shock she used her ability yet another time, on this occasion however, Tracer up behind Dave, groaning in pain as a heavy boot squashed her wrist against the building, so close to the keypad and yet so far.

The man sadly shook his head.

 _"Just how long do you think you can play this game? What's so important to you?"_

 _"I need to finish what I've started long ago."_ she said while darting for the electronic access again, only to witness her fingertips disappearing in the mist and poking the back of her head instead of the keys.

 _"You mean end your failed test flight? I can appreciate that sense of duty."_

He squinted at her while scratching his chin.

 _"You know, I really can't let you pass..."_

Without further pretext Dave took the resting accomodation under his arm.

 _"But let's say I moved over there to get out of the building's shadow to keep working on my and happened to fall asleep while sizzling in the sun."_

Elani watched the disbelief unfold in Tracer's expression and wondered if every single member of this ominous Cycle organization was nuts.

 _"Just why on earth would you help us?"_

 _"Well, it really is a mighy fine plane. Would be a shame to let it rust in there, the eggheads know it inside out anyway._

 _And what are they gonna do? Fire me?_

 _Consider it a one-time favor, from pilot to pilot."_

With no need for further words Dave made off and set up camp at a distance, leaving the two women to share a long glance before Tracer started punching in numbers and finished the act by holding an ID card of sorts close to the device.

The hangar doors opened by the barest minimum to let a person pass through.

While passing the puddle of spilled drinks, however, she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the spill fearfully.

The blue liquid, apparently the denser of the two, had seeped into the surface's cracks while the other one gave the wet spot an orange glaze.

However, nothing Elani saw justified Lena's reaction, who now quickly shook her head as if to chase away a pesky fly buzzing around her head.

The hand guiding her own blade against her vanished after Elani's heart had been pounding like crazy below its tip for a range of seconds.

Once the metal hat finished clattering on the concrete and she dared to breathe again, her next action consisted of hurrying to her mission partner's side.

Thankfully Tracer showed signs of life again, even though those were limited to squirming on the ground while wheezing and clutching her chest.

"No need to worry, only gave her heart a little squeeze.", Dave tried to reassure and failed completely to do so, once more chilling in his beach chair.

Tracer would not stay still while Elani scanned her chest and sat herself up instead.

"Jeez, that felt nasty.", she said, still sounding frail and with one set of fingers slipped below her chronal accelerator and pressing against her sternum.

Elani gaped at her in utter disbelief as she approached the foe before hurring after her.

"To get things straight.", the man started, not even deigning to open his eyes, "I could tear at your spinal cord, smash your brain, poke a hole into the ol' diligent heart or any other major blood vessel."

"I need to get inside." was Tracer's solemn answer.

"You really don't give up easily, do ya?"

To Elani's shock she used her ability yet another time, on this occasion however, Tracer up behind Dave, groaning in pain as a heavy boot squashed her wrist against the building, so close to the keypad and yet so far.

The man sadly shook his head.

"Just how long do you think you can play this game? What's so important to you?"

"I need to finish what I've started long ago." she said while darting for the electronic access again, only to witness her fingertips disappearing in the mist and poking the back of her head instead of the keys.

"You mean end your failed test flight? I can appreciate that sense of duty."

He squinted at her while scratching his chin.

"You know, I really can't let you pass..."

Without further pretext Dave took the resting accomodation under his arm.

"But let's say I moved over there to get out of the building's shadow to keep working on my and happened to fall asleep while sizzling in the sun."

Elani watched the disbelief unfold in Tracer's expression and wondered if every single member of this ominous Cycle organization was nuts.

"Just why on earth would you help us?"

"Well, it really is a mighy fine plane. Would be a shame to let it rust in there, the eggheads know it inside out anyway.

And what are they gonna do? Fire me?

Consider it a favor, from pilot to pilot."

With no need for further words Dave made off and set up camp at a distance, leaving the two women to share a long glance before Tracer started punching in numbers and finished the act by holding an ID card of sorts close to the device.

The hangar doors opened by the barest minimum to let a person pass through.

While passing the puddle of spilled drinks, however, she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the spill fearfully.

The blue liquid, apparently the denser one, had seeped into the surface's cracks while the other one gave the wet spot an orange glaze.

However, nothing Elani saw justified Lena's reaction, who now quickly shook her head as if to chase away a pesky fly buzzing around her head.

Elani heard a vague whooshing sound without apparent source as the doors closed again behind them and left the two to wander the empty space in a silence only disturbed by their footsteps.

Now deserted, only the few boxes, crates and the odd spare o-ring reminded of the Watchpoint's former use, the ubiquitous thin layer of dust however was broken along the edge of a distinctly orange-coloured part of the floor.

 _"An elevated platform, leading to the underground transport and storage system._

 _Really quite an impressive construction they've built, shame it was left to rust after Overwatch's disbandment."_ , Tracer explained as they continued further into the complex, the walls converging and leading them to a corridor, still wide enough to accomodate any fighter-sized aircraft, an overpass looming over its entry point.

Elani let herself be distracted by the intimidatingly large cobwebs below said overpass and the thought of enormous exotic spiders before finally addressing the uneasiness which she had noticed in her companion, first on the shooting range and now vastly more visible after seeing a simple cocktail spill.

 _"So, what is it you see in those perfectly normal objects that troubles you this much?"_

 _"Hm? Don't know what you mean, my dear."_

Yet the way she shook her head again, even if only for the fraction of an inch, told Elani otherwise.

 _"Just knock it off already, I can tell something's been bothering you. Ever since you saw my shot pattern."_

She took her time having a closer inspection of the markings on a small container on their way and peeking into the hallway branching-off directly behind the partial obstruction at a right angle, but Elani would have none of it.

 _"Don't even try to ignore me."_ , she smirked.

 _"You know how stubborn I can be."_

Those words provoked a verbal response at last, though not the one she had hoped for.

 _"Ah, it's just a silly thought._

 _Only fools believe in prophecies and visions._ _And certainly not scientists like you."_

Tracer picked a crumbled flyer depicting the statue of a man saluting, underlined by the phrase "May his deeds live on forever.", a hint of sadness formed on her face in response.

 _"I just heard a man claim to move faster than the speed of light, seen a cognitive fungus not too long ago...the rules of nature seem to be easily bendable in our circles, and I don't know anymore what to call impossible._

 _During your time in the...chronal limbo, have you only ever seen past and presence? Or future as well?_

Elani faced her pained expression calmly.

 _"As I've told you, most_ of the scenes were really hard to understand, and I was not quite at my best to begin with."

Slowly Tracer walked on, Elani following close behind.

The corridor now deviated at a very shallow angle from a perfectly straight line and ended at a closed bulkhead, sporting a familiar-looking spot of molten metal.

Lena did not make any efforts to remove the obstacle and seemed to be brooding over something instead.

 _"So it is true. You've seen something. Something bad."_

The way she screwed up her face was more than enough proof to Elani.

A distant clicking sound, most likely unaudible to the common ear, removed her mind from the matter at hand, if only by the smallest amount.

Wrinkling her forehead and acting out of instinct, her eyes travelled towards what she assumed to be the source of the noise, ending up on the overpass and perceiving a pale face, barely peeking over the handrail.

Tracer followed her gaze - and ripped her back violently, into the sparse cover the hallway's tiny change in direction provided.

The shot whizzed past her head in the last possible instant, cracking like a whip and impacting in the wall behind them.

Tracer cussed as Elani's momentary stupor faded away, only then feeling her heart hammering in her chest.

 _"It's her! How the flippin' devil did she get inside?"_

Tracer followed up with a more finely selected assortment of curses.

 _"Must be working with the oaf outside! We never should've trusted him even by an inch, all of this smelled after trap from a mile away."_

Her mood improved little as the door behind their backs refused to react in any way and even less so once the glowing blue light of her chronal accelerator started to pulse erratically and the device complained in a series of beeps.

Tracer dashed around in the highly confined space as good as possible, leaving behind a streak of blue light with a few noticeable interruptions.

 _"This door's hydraulics must be shut off, we won't get through any time soon._

 _At least I'm not totally out of action this time."_ , she stated with grim determinition and readied her twin armament.

Meanwhile Elani found her voice again after a few vocal misfires.

 _"Who's attacking us?"_

 _"Can only be Widowmaker. Talon's top assassin, deadly at any distance. I've encountered her before, and it didn't end well. Not at all."_ , she said while baring her teeth.

 _"Then it would be suicide to charge her head-on with limited abilities. What's our plan?"_ , Elani asked, the story of the last clash turning vivid again in her mind.

 _"I still can blink around a few feet at a time, it'll have to do. I definitely won't put you in the line of fire, not ever again."_

Tracer shifted her balance to the other foot, but Elani held her back before she could storm off.

 _"Just wait a second. Maybe I can help you in other ways."_

Tracer glanced at her warily, but remained with Elani for the moment.

The second in the team manipulated the protective layer of dark alloy with practised deftness, formed it into a bar while taking utmost care to maintain the same thickness and carefully directed it forward, out of cover.

She had a brief moment to inspect their attacker's reflection in the metal before the next bullet tore through it, causing a shower of sparks and the two woman to flinch back.

 _"It's not strong enough."_ , she stated the obvious and shifted her jaw around as another notion formed her mental coils.

 _"I may have one more idea. This woman, you said she's deadly accurate? Never misses her target, hits exactly what she aims for?"_

 _"I guess. Widowmaker's one of the best they have."_

Tracer raised a brow as a crooked grin twisted Elani's lips, she herself surprised by its sudden appearance.

 _"This may just work, but you won't like my plan at all._

 _It involves me getting shot."_

At once Tracer's previous fierceness melted away like an ice cube in the Caribbean sun, and she paled.

 _"You can't be serious._

 _Listen here, this is not some second-class Talon henchman, there's no way you can face her in combat and live to tell the tale, hell, even I hardly managed."_

Seeing her expression caused a pang of guilt in Elani, nevertheless she was intend on pursuing her plan.

 _"I'm dead serious, this might be the best chance to get both of us out of this in one piece._

 _Do you trust me?"_

Tracer chewed on her lip while Elani counted her palpable heartbeats, perfectly aware the assassin might choose a different angle of approach any second now.

 _"Yeah."_ , she meekly confessed, though not looking quite convinced herself.

 _"Okay. Once I create the opening you need to hit those pipes above the overpass, maybe even create an explosion._

 _Cut the line of sight between me and her. This is crucial. Understood?"_

Tracer nodded, apparent dread spread over her face before she regained her posture.

 _"The other corridor we passed, it should lead to the overpass as well as a set of breakers. Activate them and I can move through the maintenance area and flank her from the other side. Just..."_

Doubt and fear flashed again and screwed up her face, only to disappear with a strained sigh.

 _"I really, really hope you know what you're doing, love."_

Lena squeezed Elani's shoulder.

 _"So do I."_ , she said and got to work, letting her bright-white glove's green light dance over her torso and reshaping all of the alloy into a steeply angled pike, barely large enough to hide her face behind, using the time during the process to notice with curiosity just how recklessly she acted, and yet not regretting it in the slightest.

 _The strange things we do for love...if you can even call this love. Not that I'd know._

After a handful of seconds all preparations were finished.

Elani took a few deep, deliberate breaths, wiped the sweat off her palms, glanced at Lena for a last time, raised the shield, smaller but stronger than the previous layer of protection, infront of her face.

And darted back the way they came, into the sharpshooter's clear line of fire, zig-zagging as fast as her legs would carry her.

She almost reached the cover of the small container, almost made it to the turn.

The bullet hit Elani in full sprint, finding its target with surgical precision forced her to the ground, though the momentum made her slide the last distance and disappear behind the obstruction.

Tracer used the opening to let loose a salvo from her pistols, their opponent dodging the return fire with ease by ducking behind the steel sheets hanging from the handrail.

On the bright side, one blue dart found the pipes above and punched a hole into the metal.

A fine mist streamed out and burst into flames at once, the fire however quickly snuffed out again as the crack widened and pressure drove a cyan waterfall of gas from its confinement.

Meanwhile Elani, still laying on her belly, tried hard not to black out and had to convince her lungs to continue their work.

 _The perfect assassin, and that's why she has failed._

She would've laughed at the irony if not for the pain coursing through her chest, centering around the hole right where her heart was.

Or rather where it had been only a minute ago.

She closed the wound, trembling hands making job unnecessarily difficult, moved her cardiovascular system back to its original place and took a moment to regain her breath.

Even if the projectile had only torn through common connective tissue, missing vital organs and her spine by a hair's breadth in the process, the sheer kinetic force still made it kick like a mule.

 _At least there was no flashback._

 _I should probably be worried about getting used to taking a hit this quickly, though._

And yet she could not help but marvel at her impressive resilience.

Her strength mostly restored, Elani jumped to her feet again and continued down the second corridor, moving as silently as possible to maintain the current tactical advantage, now sword in hand.

 _The trick probably won't work twice._

After a few steps and stairs she arrived at a row of breakers, switches and glowing lamps, however she would need to pass by the opening leading to the bridge.

Carefully she peeked around the corner and saw the attacker, her rifle still firmly trained on Tracer's hiding spot, a layer of dense cyan mist billowing up to her knees and rising at a constant rate.

Elani decided to try her luck and dashed past through Widowmaker's edge of vision, quickly activating the set of switches labelled as activators of the internal hydraulic system.

Somewhere in the distance, a sliding door opened with an almost unnoticeable hiss.

Now on the other side, she spied on the assassin once more, mentally scolding herself for letting that pistol in the weapon locker, now half a world away.

A sickly sweet whiff started a second train of thought while the woman with the rifle scowled down at the heavy gas, now reaching her waist, and cursed _"Zut alors_!" under her breath.

 _I may have no firearm, but a matchstick..._

In a blink she produced the box, but then a memory of a moonlit sky forced itself into her mind and made her bite her lip, she hiding herself from sight during her contemplation.

 _That gas may be dense, but the outer layer should've mixed with oxygen from the air well enough by now._

 _A spark, and flames will engulf everything in the cloud._

 _Problem is I can't really treat burns, not even remotely effectively..._

Any further decision was taken from Elani as the adversary ran into her, froze for an attosecond, looking as if she was seeing a ghost - which was not too far from the truth - but wasted no further time.

Elani had an almost nonexistant window of opportunity to notice Widowmaker's pale violet skin tone and the not entirely modest attire, consisting of bright violet and deep purple shades, before the two women were locked in a deadly dance, one trying to bring her barrel to bear and the other desperately trying to evade it.

There was no pattern, no tact, no distinct melody to grasp and counter, only blistering speed and surprising grace on the assailant's part.

Elani would've wondered how this amount of strength could be packed into such a slender frame if not all her mental capacities had been occupied otherwise as she tried to make use of her own weapon, lashing out at nonvital body parts as precicely as the close scuffle allowed, but her opponent did not offer any breathing space whatsover and stayed at the optimal distance to hamper the sword's usefulness, blocking every single cut with the barrel of her precision rifle.

Being more experienced at half-swording really would've been helpful.

Elani was unable to focus during the relentless assault, yet even without perfect clarity she somehow managed to dodge or block all of the kicks and blows hailing down onto her with wicked precision, her body guided by a mind of its own.

As the encounter got drawn out into what couldn't have been more than four seconds, her opponent's attacks started to bristle with fury and turned even more vicious, eventually Elani staggered back into a corner after a particularly powerful punch.

Something wizzed forward, wrapped around her sword and wrenched it from her grip.

Not wasting any time whatsoever, Widowmaker closed in, aiming straight at the head this time, a victorious grin poking through her facade.

Bereft of all defenses, options and clear thoughts, instinct made Elani jump forward and raise her hands.

Her white glove closed around the black muzzle brake.

The front end of the rifle, well-nicked by her own weapon of choice, exploded in a blinding flash, ripped open by the rapidly expanding gasses inside.

Elani felt something warm run down her cheek, and, still dazed by the shockwave, froze for the blink of an eye.

Widowmaker did not.

Instead she slammed her against the wall, the force of the impact making her see stars and almost catapulting her into unconsciousness.

If not for the abnormally cold fingers firmly wrapped around her throat, Elani surely would've succumbed to gravity.

Someone pushed up one of her drooping lids and she saw a blurred world, dark-purple lips forming the word _"Interesting."_ before letting the shutter slide down again.

Next there was a blade, first running over the pale gray pattern on her skin and then matching the curvature of her neck perfectly, biting into her flesh, deep enough to draw a drop of blood.

A voice reached her ears, low and dull as if it was coming from a great distance, tinted with a foreign accent she could not quite place with her knotted and sluggish thoughts.

 _"A heart of stone, some good reflexes, even heard me swinging inside and chambering a round._

 _How come I've never heard of you?"_

Elani blinked numbly and laid eyes on some genuine curiosity once her vision had regained part of its sharpness.

Feeling as if she was some sort of spider trapped under a magnifying lens, she simply waited, currently unable to form coherent words anyway.

 _"Anyway. Thanks for letting me in, the crétin outside has been awfully uncooperative."_

Elani's arms kept on dangling at at her side limply even as she felt the pressure on the blade pressed against her throat increase with deliberate, delicate slowness.

Until a second buzzing noise joined the one in her ears and the victorious Talon agent started to frown and tilted her head to the side, apparently hearing something as well.

Moments passed, the noise dwindled again and a wickedly sweet grin, as sharp as the karambit digging into Elani's skin, moved Widowmaker's lips.

 _"The boss got plans for you, ma chérie."_

And just like that, she let go and left the scene.

Not able to support her own weight, Elani slid down the wall, her eyes closing again on their own accord, only now becoming aware of the nauseating pain pulsing in her head.

Sensation only returned to one of her hands and she started to inspect her wounds, a frown appearing as she probed the gash close to her cheekbone and deepening when she arrived at the back of her head and felt the clots of blood in her hair.

Once the injuries were rated as being of minor concern, her eyes fluttered shut again and her muscles lost all their tension.

Only two bitter words echoed through her battered mind, carrying enough weight to keep her from drifting off.

 _Defeated. Again._

Elani waited for a set of footsteps to come closer, or anything else that might herald Tracer's late arrival.

She could already see that heartwrenching expression of worry looming over her once again and screwed up her face at the prospect.

Yet time trickled on without a hint about her companions wherabouts, and some concern of her own started to grow in Elani.

 _Just what is taking her so long?_

She decided to search for Tracer and shook her head in an attempt to chase away the stupor, regretting the motion at once as pain shot through her skull and brought a second surge of nausea.

Blinking away the tears the awfully bright, stinging headlights caused, she got back onto her feet with some effort and staggered on, her vision not quite cleared up yet.

The gas had stopped pooling out of the pipe and the heavy cloud dissipated or flown through gaps to the level below, but its scent still lingered in the air and didn't exactly make Elani's goal of not throwing up any easier.

The sliding door on the far end of the walkway opened effortlessly and led her to a spacious room, a multitude of of robotic arms and winches dangling from the ceiling and even more tools and mechanical components scattered all over the place.

What dominated the workshop, however, was the fighter aircraft in its center - Tracer standing close to its cockpit, unmoving.

Under most circumstances the peculiar pattern of rusty spots along its sleek and rounded hull would've been very interesting to inspect, but currently Elani wanted little more than to lie down for a few hours and forget the pain throbbing in her gloved hand with increasing intensity.

For the time being she settled for seating herself on a cylindrical metal cover, close to Tracer.

Who apparently had not heard her shuffling close, or at the very least gave no hint of doing so.

Curiosity got the better of Elani after a few more, strangely silent moments, and she leaned to the side in an attempt to spy whatever required so much attention.

Her eyes, or rather her visual cortex, was not quite up and running again, nevertheless the letters turned legible eventually.

Someone had painted the string "Plus Ultra" on the side, right below the canopy.

The complete lack of decay of the paint made clear the two words had been applied a good time after the airplane's original construction.

A vague connection popped up in Elani's mind, but she decided to break the quietness before it could fully form.

 _"Why yes, I'm still alive and well, thanks for asking."_

Lena finally managed to push away whatever thoughts had petrified her and spun around, eyes immediately darting to the thin trickle of blood still running down Elani's cheek and neck and the red strand on her throat.

Tracer tensed with a jolt and blinked frantically, the pistol in her hand shooting up as she scanned her surroundings, her voice, on the other hand, sounded hollow.

 _"Wha...what happened to you? Where is Widowmaker?_

We gotta be extra careful, she has a formidable grappling, hook, could attack from any angle..."

Elani shook her head, more slowly this time, having learnt her lesson.

 _"I lost. She had a knife at my throat, then simply let go after receiving some command..."_ ,

she closed her eyes for a few second as a wave of vertigo passed by and briefly made the world spin,

 _"...said they got plans for me. Also, she doesn't seem to be working with the bloke outside."_

Lena's gun-wielding arm slackened again, along with her shoulders, and her gaze turned back to her previous center of attention.

Elani could not help but feel a tiny bit neglected, the mild anger made her headache worse but gave her thought processes some extra fuel and thus presented her with some useful information at long last.

 _"It means something like beyond the common borders, beyond the established limits._

 _So tell me, what is it about this simple expression that keep you from helping a fellow Overwatch member in distress?"_

The conspicuously small sliver of guilt in the other woman's expression told her something was seriously troubling Lena.

 _"You were right. I have seen something. Something terrible._

 _Whatever twisted future event I've seen, It starts with your death. And Winston's"_ , she said while staring blankly at the inside of her hands.

Her voice shrank to a whisper.

 _"And it ends in something worse."_

The level of adrenaline in Elani's veins increased again by a fraction and made her aching wounds a little more bearable.

"How come you never mentioned?"

"I hardly remember anything from the chronal disassociation, and don't usually think back to that time if I can avoid it.

And yet...", she glanced at the letters again, _"some memorable sights stayed in my mind."_

Meanwhile the pain pulsing through Elani's somewhat tenderized hand hat steadily grown in size and made following the conversation increasingly more difficult.

 _"Think you could find some painkillers?"_ , she pressed through clenched teeth, clutching her wrist and groaning as a new spike of pain arrived.

 _"Of course, my dear."_

Whatever had hampered Tracer's abilities apparently disappeared with Widowmaker; she rushed off with ease once more, appearing at a control panel for a heartbeat and causing the floor beneath the Slipstream to slowly sink belowgrounds before moving on.

She probably returned after only a few seconds, but the torturing waiting time seemed quite a bit longer to Elani, in result she snatched the autoinjector presented by Tracer all the more quickly.

She pushed the needle through her skin as quickly as her uninjured and yet trembling hand allowed, sighing deeply as the drug took effect almost immediately and brought nigh overwhelming relief, an then some more.

 _"Strong stuff."_ , she noted, trailing off a little as the pain evaporated and she started to feel light-headed.

 _"Maybe I shouldn't have picked the large one."_

Right now Elani's mind was completely unable to relate to the concern showing in Tracer's slightly shrill voice.

 _"Please don't tell me I've given you an overdose."_

 _"Nah, nah. Just..."_

Elani painted some indiscernible shape in the air with her finger and almost would've fallen off her improvised seat in the process.

 _"Now that's just perfect."_ , Lena said while pushing her upright again.

 _"We gotta get back to Gibraltar as soon as possible. Can you walk?"_

 _"Can try."_ , Elani mumbled dreamily and let herself drag to her feet, off towards the exit and over the airstrip, more floating than walking, passing the Slipstream and a demonstratively inactive Dave, all along trying hard not to simper and mostly failing miserable.

The chair Tracer strapped her in eventually was far more comfortable than it had any right to be, and Elani finally drifted off into soft and cloudy pleasantness.

* * *

An elusive amount of time later the senseless silhouettes and shifting shapes around her faded into smooth nothingness, save for a few green strings of light dancing in empty space.

Step by step the world around Elani emerged as if from a gray mist and soon she found herself staring at her own hand.

Her mind, still busy booting up again and turned sluggish by remaining painkiller traces, nevertheless was able to recognize the machine currently treating the badly bruised hand and repairing whatever damage catching a bullet had done to the muscles and bones within.

On the bright side, the was no more pain and the flesh had been sufficiently healed to allow finger movement.

The complete lack of sensation in said fingers, however, told her part of the nerve fibers had yet to be reformed.

Something the automized device, still deep in the prototype stage, was not very good at.

Knowing not every part of life could be readily overtaken by robotic means, knowing her skill and experience still was valuable, certainly had a comforting feel to it.

Yet Elani's smile disappeared quickly as a nagging sensation showed its ugly face.

Something Tracer had said, something bad, something about death...

Her fogged memories would not provide any more detail right now, and so she decided to pay closer attention to the superior variant of her invention, once coined Virima, placed on a table in the immediate proximity.

Judging by its charred looks and the pulverized electronic components peeking through a gash in the protective outer layer, it was slightly less superior at this very moment.

Any further musings on Elani's part about how the fairly obvious damage had escaped her notice until now came to an abrupt halt when the alarm started blaring away.

Without wasting a single thought she started fumbling at the straps firmly holding the limb in place while a nearby heartrate monitor beeped angrily.

Now wide awake and back on her feet, Elani had half a mind of tossing a tablet with medical supplies across the room when she realized the specially prepared alloy, currently shaped like a longsword, had been forgotten in a Watchpoint a whole ocean away.

 _To sum up, my offensive and defensive cappabilities are almost reduced to nil._

Still without the slightest clue what exactly was afoot, she decided it would be best to group up with the other Overwatch members.

A task which turned out to be somewhat difficult since she was oblivious to Tracer's and Winston's current location, combined with the fact most of this Watchpoint was still unfamiliar territory to her.

Elani figured the primitive map in her mind would have to do and hurried off into the direction she deemed right, hoping to find the elevator leading to the main level rather sooner than later.

While letting her feet carry her onward, she opened her senses, tapped into the torrent of raw information surrounding her, focussing as well as she could in an attempt to learn something, anything about the situation.

Filtering out her own footsteps, accelerated breathing and pulse echoing off the rock all around was hard work, but fruitful eventually and left her with a range of vague and distorted noises.

There was something sharp and regular.

 _Could be anything, really. Footsteps, someone drilling a hole, a spinning fan, a broken generator._

A tad more interesting was a strange howling sound she had never heard before, followed by a massive object impacting, the latter more felt that heard.

What made Elani's eyes widen and pace move up a gear, however, was an unmistakably noise, appearing in bursts.

 _Gunshots._

After one more minute of running around aimlessly she found the sought-after elevator, though any satisfaction upon doing so turned to ash the instant she recoiled from the and the shadows staring back at her in the empty elevator shaft, through a set of sliding doors wide open, defying all security regulations and promising a long and deep fall.

Elani turned on her heel, intent to find another, preferably intact means of decending, but as if on command footsteps appeared, coming from the corridor straight ahead, suspiciously muffled and furtively though not esacping her heightened senses.

Definitely more than two pair of feet, and definitely heading straight for her.

Before she could decide how to react, half a dozen people came around the corner, moving with impressive coordination.

All of them covered with body armour from head to toe, black being the dominating colour, and wielding automatic weapons, now aimed at her.

Elani was very cautious not to move a single inch as they moved into firing position, even holding her breath while her heart kept on pounding like a jackhammer.

Acting as one, the squad opened fire, let loose a solid burst of lead.

All of her thoughts turned into a chaotic knot as the projectiles struck their target.

The force of multiple impacts made her stagger backwards, over the edge, and next she fell through the darkness, seeing the bright opening shrink rapidly and feeling as if she was passing through the depths of an endless inky sea rather than air.

At last all light disappeared and the maw of darkness closed around her.

Elani was floating through the perfect void, deprived of all sensation and blank of mind.

Until a vapid voice appeared, seemingly appearing from all around her.

 _"It starts with your death..."_

The voice duplicated and repeated, over and over again, until the phrase filled every last inch of the unending nothingness around her with its overwhelming presence.

A second one emerged, infinitesimal in number and yet reducing the first one to a pale shadow, for it carried a memory, a chance, a feeling.

 _"Don't die."_

A relict from a different time. A plea, a command.

A choice.

Elani added her own whisper and turned it into a promise.

Next she coughed and was brutally greeted back to reality as pain flared all over her body.

Dimly aware of a rustling sound nearby, she grimaced at just how miserably she felt, until her brain noticed how her last memory suggested she should feel far more miserable - or nothing at all.

She opened her eyes, only to find herself in darkness again, albeit there was something huge moving in front of an absolutely tiny white light.

Every movement caused a groan, but got her into an upright position eventually, and by that time she could hazard a guess as to what, or rather who the shifting shape was?

 _"Winston?"_ , she asked, noticed just how parched her throat was, coughed again and regretted it immediately.

Bizarrely, though, the process actually hurt a little less this time.

Instead of an answer, there was an electric sizzling sound, complete with sparks, that caused a ring of lights around them to light up, revealing an elevator cabin, its top ripped open by a great force, and the two Overwatch members within.

Elani gasped as she saw Winston's blood-drenched appearance, again upon noticing the red mess her own front was, and felt herself coming dangerously close to fainting once more.

 _"Don't worry, it's not real blood."_ , the gorilla placated and turned back to bis previous occupation, which revealed itself as tampering with a bunch of wires behind an access panel.

 _"Not real blood..."_ , she repeated in a mumble, positively dumbfounded, and prodded herself in the chest.

 _Which would explain why I'm still alive and kicking after what looks like two dozen hits._

Indeed, careful closer inspection revealed nothing but bruised and superficial skin damage between slightly tattered clothing.

 _"Just...why?"_ , she said to herself and approached Winston.

 _"What the heck is going on?"_

 _"It's Talon. A few of them must've hijacked the supply delivery from Gibraltar, somehow shielded themselves from the scans, and let the others in."_

He spoke slowly, visibly concentrating on whatever he was hoping to achieve by tinkering with the cables, and lapsed back into silence.

Elani's view moved upwards, the mere notion of falling all the way here making her dizzy.

 _"But why are we still alive? And how have I survived the trip down?"_

 _"Why kill what you can capture for later use?_

 _They forced me into this cabin before I could react and locked the doors._

 _I climbed up, almost made it to the top when I saw you sailing down, and now that the cables are cut I have no way of getting up again."_

Elani took her time digesting the new information while Winston kept touching two wires in a deliberate tact.

 _"Sorry about thwarting your efforts._

 _And...thanks for saving my life."_

He shrugged while the small screen above his current center of focus flashed cut-off images at them.

 _"Don't mention it. No way I could let you fall to your death."_

He let out a satisfied grunt as the display's contents steadied and showed what must've been the footage of a security camera.

Upon closing one of the many available electric circuits, the feed changed to show one motionless scene after another - until they arrived at a channel showing a large room, possibly unused storage space.

Empty save for a good two score Talon troops, currently occupied with surrounding Tracer.

Elani watched in shock as the woman on the screen darted around their enemies' ranks, clearly having difficulties handling her abilities, judging by the way she flickered around and failed to attack a foe more often than not simply due to the fact she had to avoid their barrels.

Any shots she fired herself only glanced off her opponents' armor.

Right when Tracer had managed to send one of them to the ground, a projection on the wall made her stop dead in her tracks.

Elani watched her wide-eyed self get shot and fall through the gaping opening yet another time, then Winston going down in a hail of bullets before the elevator doors slid shut and hid the gorilla from sight.

It really looked incredibly realistic.

 _It starts with your death. And Winston's._

Elani's heatrate quickened to a buzz as the second half of the prophecy echoed through her mind and caused the icy sensation of pure distilled dread to lap around her spine.

 _And it ends in something worse._

Eyes still superglued to the screen, she heard a low rumbling growl coming from somewhere close.

 _"Looks almost like they planned on breaking Lena's fighting spirit all along._

 _Now that's nasty, even by Talon standards."_

Their devious plan panned out, as they had the non-pleasure of witnessing on the impressively sharp and detailed screen, complete with crystal-clear sound.

Lena sank to her knees, her face alarmingly bland and betraying none of the emotions raging within.

A voice carried through the speakers, presumably their leader's and bearing a vague resemblance to one in her memory, but Elani couldn't care less at this moment.

 _"Your friends are dead, your chronal accelerator jammed, your abilities rendered useless._

 _Surrender, and we may let you live to see another day."_

Just standing there and watching The foreboding catastrophe unfold, only able to meekly whisper "We gotta help her." felt like it was driving her insane.

Meanwhile Lena, oblivious to the enemy's ranks closing in on her, was searching the incapacitated Talon soldier right infront of her and found what appeared to be a combat knife.

 _"Hold these, and step aside."_ , Winston said in a voice that left no room for discussion, Elani needed a second to comprehend his words and then took the pair of glasses, after which he promptly started hammering against the set of sliding doors keeping them locked up with brute force.

Her eyes shot back to the display on their own.

Lena, dual pistols replaced by a simple blade, was back on her feat again.

And unfastened her harness, let the vital piece of electronics clunk on the hard concrete floor.

Even through the noise produced by Winston's efforts, Elani could hear the genuine surprise in their leader's question.

 _"Now, what will you do without control?"_

There was something she could not put her finger on, some almost unnoticeable change in Lena's expression, some glint in her eyes or a change in the way she accented her next words that struck Elani despite the massive gorilla right next to her pounding against metal with an intimidating animalistic fury.

 _"I no longer need control."_

Whatever it was, it caused a feel in Elani she never would've dreamt of experiencing when looking at Lena.

Fear.

Winston used his newfound source of strength to perfection and created created a hole large enough to allow his bulk to pass through in astoundingly short time.

A single Talon guarding the elevator's exit was sent flying as he charged off without wasting any further thoughts, Elani, unable to match his speed, falling behind.

Thankfully their target was not far off.

Her once more broadened senses picked up something strange during the sprint, not the expected gunfire but rather gurgling noises and metal grinding against stone, as if someone dragging dozens of blades over granite at once.

On the other hand there were shouts aplenty, even though they seemed a little...off...and rapidly diminished in number, fading alltogether just a few second l before Winston arrived at the final turn.

Where he stopped, with an expression on his features that Elani did not know how to interpret but made her heart skip a few beats nonetheless.

A shout bounced around the corner, its tone completely alien to her.

 _"This still is far too good for you bleedin' wretches!"_

Elani went past Winston at a crawling pace and saw Lena, kicking...something squishy.

She flickered from time to time, in response Elani went straight for where she had last seen the chronal accelerator, over the slippery ground, and found it after digging through something her eyes saw but mind adamantly refused to accept, her body moving ungainly like a machine.

Only when she approached and was at arm's length did Lena notice them, stopped all motion and stared at her and Winston in turn as if they were apparitions, not from this world.

 _"It was just a ploy."_ , Elani said monotonously after watching the mask of fury dissolve into nothingness.

Dead silence settled again while her untrained fingers tried to reattach the harness and succeeded, judging by the dimly glowing blue light.

Lena remained taciturn and mostly motionless, only slowly turned her head, watching the carnage all around her as if she was seeing it for the first time.

And collapsed on the spot.

* * *

 _"You think she'll be okay?"_

Elani's gaze went straight through the real-time neural scan of her hand, not caring about the last interrupted nervous pathways in the slightest.

Winston's shrug did little to lift her dreary mood.

 _"I've never seen her like this before._

 _Since...the attack, she has hardly even visited the Watchpoint."_

He kept on mindlessly tinkering with the handful of components, clearly brooding over other matters.

 _"Just disappears whenever I notice her._

 _From the security protocols I can tell Lena's not sleeping in her quarters or taking supplies from the Watchpoint's stocks, beyond that I have no idea what she's up to."_

His construction collapsed under its own weight and broke in two, leaving them to stare at the pitiful heap.

Elani felt the sudden urge to scream at the silence all around, slice through the invisible yet viscous, dismal goo weighing her down.

Instead she funneled the restless energy building up inside her into movement.

In a blink she was in a different part of the complex, rummaging through the few personal belongings she had brought along, carelessly tossing them aside in search of a small and inconspicuous plastic bag.

Elani found it, rolled the single candy cherry around in her palm as the attached memories surfaced, feeling so incredible help- and clueless she thought she might burst any moment.

Only then she noticed she had been using one of Colony's arguably most useful gifts, her surroundings cast in perfect darkness.

Or maybe not quite perfect, since there was a dim streak of light, bugging her more than it had any right to.

Acting on purely impulsive and volatile whims she followed it, hoping to find some sort of light bulb and blow off a little steam by destroying it in the most violent fashion possible.

She followed the glow around a tidy sum of corners and angles, senseless anger partly converting into occupational curiosity as she hypothesized her agitated state was increasing her changed retina's sensitivity even further.

All of it was replaced by surprise once she laid eyes on the light's source.

Elani found herself in a location still firmly imprinted into her mind.

The humongous pillar and the two boxes remained in the very same spot, even the moon's position on the night sky was remarkably similar.

The view through the gap leading to the outer world, however, differed quite a bit to from the moment of her oath.

Where there once had been a round plate, now only the faintest silvery sliver remained, while the vista outward was permeated by a light gray mist, slightly illuminated by the city lights out of view and swallowing everything beyond the inactive lighthouse.

Like the end of the world, as Lena had once said.

Out of a sudden Elani had a distinct idea where to find her and, acting on a mood, briefly closed her eyes and took a deep breath from the calm nocturnal air.

And whispered a second vow, just as inevitable as the first one now that the way ahead was clear as crystal.

 _"I'll do whatever it takes to make her overcome this."_

Her enhanced eye offered more than sufficient vision to let Elani ascend the precipitous path.

Minor vertigo closed around her throat, tried to choke her and turn her legs into jelly, but was swatted aside easily by her resolute mindset.

Progress was quick, faster than she'd ever dare to dream.

At least until she encountered an obstacle no amount of mindset could wish away.

There was a crack in the rock, one small enough to vault over with relative ease, at least in theory, nonetheless the completely unperturbed view downward made her stop dead in her tracks and feel queasy no matter how hard she pressed against the barrier in her mind.

A minute passed where Elani could only clench her fists and curse herself, then a shooting star flashed across the sky in a perfectly straight line, seemingly cutting the world into two halves, two paths, a simple choice.

To her, the wish she uttered was the most obvious one she had ever made.

Not knowing the exact location of Lena's favourite vantage point on this great rock in the sea turned out to be less of a problem than expected.

Elani's sharpened senses picked up the familiar conifer resin scent soon enough.

Guided by her olfactory bulb she eventually reached a hill, small but remarkably steep and devoid of any larger vegetation save for a strange tree with a smooth and bulgy trunk but heavily knotted and twisting branches with irregular leaves, an organism she had never seen or heard about before.

The further she ascended, the closer she got, the stronger the scent became, far more potent than ever before.

Soon enough the air was so laden with the stuff Elani could basically taste it.

Its source became apparent once she got a closer look on the trunk, in a fidelity far above anything an ordinary human might've seen with nothing but the distant city lights in the back.

Thick yellow liquid flowed from the tree wherever it laid bare, which meant plenty of the strong-scented sap oozing out since the bark had been removed in quite a large area, showing literally hundreds upon hundreds of tiny cuts in the wood, some of them old and healed, a few pristine, all topped off by a date carved into the wood, though only day and month remained legible.

Also, there were scratch marks, as if some wild animal had clawed at it - and injured itself in the process, as streaks of red in the slick golden coat.

Something with really small and blunt claws, as Elani noted, and got a distinctly uncomfortable notion.

Sure enough she found Lena only a few steps away from the bizarre tree, squatting on this mound of earth that appeared to be the tallest spot on this geological formation and looking quite terrible.

Given a grisly dark coat by all the dried blood still covering her, she blandly stared into the gray abyss ahead and looked as if she had indeed not slept or eaten since the day of the Talon attack.

 _"Why are you here?"_

The complete lack of emotion in her voice made Elani all the more concerned, and the way she languidly tugged at her harness certainly did not help.

 _"Why, because I'm still your friend. You don't have to face this alone."_

Lena did not move a muscle as Elani crouched down beside Lena.

 _"Sorry about messing up that weird tree. It's probably one of a kind or something."_

Seeing her fingertips, torn up and coated in the same yellow substance, confirmed her suspicion.

 _"One mark for every bloody day since I've joined Overwatch."_

She flinched away as Elani extended a hand to

examine her injured fingertips and jumped to her feet, anger flaring up in her voice.

 _"Just...how can anyone, you most of all, still look me in the eye?_

 _After you've seen the monster I am?_

 _You, who goes out of her way to spare as many as possible?_

 _I must seem like devil incarnate to you ."_

 _"Don't be silly, you never were a monster, you just got cornered and tricked."_

Elani certainly preferred her pained expression to the previous nothingness, it somehow gave her hope they could still get out of this.

 _"I've taken a few lives before, in self-defense, but this was entirely different._

 _You should've heard my thoughts in that moment."_

Her voice shrank to a whisper as she slumped down, combined with her already wan complexion Elani somewhat expected her to faint at any second.

 _"I didn't just want to kill them_

 _I wanted to hear them scream and cry, make them suffer the worst pain imaginable for...what I thought they did._

 _That goes against everything Overwatch has ever stood for."_

Elani reached out for her again.

 _"I know. Still, no way I'll ever leave you alone. We're a team after all."_

This time she did not back off.

Elani could hardly stop herself from grinning as she saw something change in Lena, and was quick to follow up.

 _"And no matter what I have to do or how long it takes, I'll help you to deal with this, as good as I can."_

Smiling faintly, she added

 _"Don't even try to run and hide, you know how headstrong I can be._

 _And the way you're drenched in this sap I could probably find you a few miles downwind anyway."_

Elani could've counted her heartbeats as she waited for Lena's reaction, shoving away all urges and cravings caused by the overpowering scent surrounding them far, far away.

Without warning she launched herself at Elani, wrapped her arms around the other woman with a surprising strength considering her current state and almost made Elani fear some of her ribs would give way under the pressure.

The momentum made the two stumble back, against the single tree, where Lena took a shaky breath and tightened the already vice-like hug even further.

 _"Just...don't ever disappear again."_

Elani sensed old feelings on the rise, but faced them head-on and stayed tall and strong for Lena's sake.

She remained upright, legs firmly planted on the ground and not at all wobbly even as she felt the tension slowly melt away from Lena, the iron grip around her weakening.

The breaths brushing past her neck turned slower and steadier with each passing moment, and once the embrace turned decisively one-sided, it became apparent that Lena was catching up on some sleep.

Carrying her down again was quite the effort, but the burning muscles only seemed fitting to Elani, for the right path is hardly ever easy, and she would be hard-pressed to remember a decision that had felt as right as this one.

Yet she could not help but to wonder just at what point she had become the right kind of hero to save Lena.

* * *

 **Well, that's that.**

 **I really do hope not too many of you have been disappointed.**

 **The main story is now officially finished, a small (but spicy) epilogue shall follow soon to top things off.**

 **And after that? Well, I don't really know. Doubt I'll revise the story, I mean, it's over sixty-six thousand frickin' words :D**

 **As for those few poor souls who follow my profile: Sorry to disappoint, but it's highly unlikely I'll write any more Overwatch fanfiction,**

 **or any fanfiction really, at least for quite some time. For now my common fiction ideas will have priority.**


	11. Epilogue

Construction was really going along splendidly.

Where there once had been but empty air and the occasional lightbulb dangling from the ceiling, space was now filled with a multitude of rooms large and small, spread across more than one floor, empty for the most part but nonetheless showing progress nonetheless.

Keen on seeing development of a different kind, a particular woman was paying the recently finished and newly furnished bathroom a visit, inspecting her not quite flawless self in the perfectly spotless, full-sized mirror at this late hour.

There was the spot close to her kidney where unblemished skin hid a patch of flesh ever so slightly more rigid than the surrounding tissue, a memento from the very first day.

Still subtly gray remained the web-like pattern on her neck, a source of mixed feeling, for it had, albeit in a twisted and indirect way, unified the two factions inside her.

A few more scars followed, a new notable examples, the overwhelming majority small and faint.

Some testified success, some failure, all of them a growth however.

The last few months had been almost painfully boring when compared to the turbulent starting phase, and little had they contributed to the collection, Elani very much doubt the same could be said for the following day.

Yet it was something far more mundane that caused the greatest emotional response.

 _"Hypobaric sugillation"_ she whispered into the darkness with barely concealed glee, blushing and grinning wildly in giddy excitement while staring at the fading bruise close to the slightly discoloured blot, which had turned out to be a fair bit more sensitive than the surrounding skin.

She took great pleasure in knowing hardly anybody would know what exactly the term described, much less what the bruise meant to her.

Deciding she had wasted more than enough time nightwalking, Elani sauntered back to the dorm room, treading carefully as not to disturb the ones snoring away peacefully.

The bunks were as hard and generally uncomfortable as ever, but that little drawback could not even remotely hope to counteract the feeling caused by the mere presence of the person right beside her now shifting closer and mumbling sleepily into her ear.

 _"Can't sleep either, hm?"_

 _"Nah, how could I? It's been ages, and tomorrow's the big day."_

The muffled giggle broadened her grin even further.

 _"Ready to save me for a fourth time, my love?"_

Elani took her time savouring the closeness before answering, completely unable to think of a place or a time where she'd rather be.

 _"Almost a year to the day. Do you even remember?"_

She shivered in response to the quick peck on the cheek.

 _Some things never change._

The thought was strangely comforting.

 _"I remember a young, fearless woman between car wrecks, then as exceptionally awesome as now._

 _Try to get some sleep, you'll need it."_

The voice belonging to the person right next to her filled with awe and anticipation.

 _"Starting tomorrow we fight back at last."_

* * *

 **Ta-da! That's my concept of a happy ending.**

 **And now to the final words...**

 **Writing this (by my standards) behemoth certainly has been an invaluable for me, and I'd like to thank each and every single one of you with all my heart for bringing me a step closer to my goal of writing some great stories.**

 **I hope you've enjoyed the ups of my story and survived the downs well enough...who am I kidding, if you are reading this sentence, either you've enjoyed this work of mine, or something is seriously wrong with you.**

 **What's left to say?**

 **Two months. Over sixty-six thousand words, that's over two hundred twenty fuckin' pages when assuming 300 words per page, pardon my French.**

 **A major milestone to say the least, by far the longest coherent piece I've ever written.**

 **As always, if you wanna know anything about the characters, places writing concepts I used or whatever really, feel free to write me a message at any time.**

 **And you better don't be stingy on the critique!**

 **Farewell, and thanks for everything.**

 **mampfer**


End file.
